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A  STUDY  IN  INDUSTRY 
2-  35  6  I 

By 

JOSEPHINE    GOLDMARK 

PUBLICATION    SECRETARY    NATIONAL    CONSUMERS*    LEAGUE 


INTRODUCTION 

!y  Frederic  S.  Lee,  Ph.D. 


NEW      YORK 
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Copyright,  1912,  by 

The  Russell  Sage  Foundation 

Printed  May,  1912 

Reprinted  November,  1912 


PRESS    OF    WM.    F.    FELL    CO. 
PHILADELPHIA 


INTRODUCTION 

AS  I  turn  from  my  laboratory  to  consider  in  what  words 
Z-V  I  may  fittingly  introduce  Miss  Goldmark's  admirable 
-^  *-  book,  two  thoughts  that  have  often  been  with  me 
come  to  me  again.  The  first  is,  that  among  the  many  condi- 
tions of  human  life  which  may  be  classed  as  causes  of  misery, 
there  is  none  more  potent  than  the  failure  of  men  to  live  in 
accordance  with  physiological  laws.  Many  men  fail  so  to 
live  because  of  ignorance;  many  for  the  reason  that  even 
though  knowledge  be  present,  desire  is  defeated  by  the  fact 
that  within  their  chosen  sphere  of  labor  they  are  not  free 
agents.  If  this  cause  of  misery  is  to  be  removed,  there  is 
needed  first  of  all  a  knowledge  of  what  is  physiological. 

Like  other  men  of  science,  the  physiologist  is  too  often 
content  to  spend  his  time  in  seeking,  to  which  is  added  the 
occasional  greater  pleasure  of  finding.  He  tells  his  dis- 
coveries to  his  colleagues  in  the  language  common  to  both, 
but  too  often  he  does  not  interpret  them  to  the  people;  and 
thus  he  lets  the  world  at  large  remain  in  its  ignorance  and 
misery.  Even  more  rarely  does  he  venture  to  instruct  those 
who  shape  the  conditions  under  which  multitudes  of  the  people 
live.  But  he  gladly  welcomes  the  services  of  those  individuals 
who  understand  physiological  laws  and  their  bearing  upon 
human  life,  and  are  capable  of  bringing  this  knowledge  con- 
vincingly home  to  those  who  are  most  in  need  of  it. 

The  second  thought  that  comes  back  to  me  is  this: 
Industrialism  has  been  quick  to  accept  the  achievements  of 
science  in  inanimate  things,  but  slow  to  recognize  the  teach- 
ings of  physiology  with  regard  to  the  man  himself.  Methods 
and  machines  have  been  revolutionized,  but  the  human  ele- 
ment has  not  yet  been  eliminated.  The  man  or  woman  or 
child  is  still  essential  to  the  method  and  the  machine,  and 
while  the  inanimate  agent  demands  more  and  more  of  him, 
his  fundamental  physiological  powers  are  probably  not  so 
very  different  from  what  they  were  when  he  built  the  pyra- 
mids and  made  papyrus.     He  may  sharpen  his  attention. 


VI  INTRODUCTION 

shorten  his  reaction  time,  and  develop  manual  skill;  scientific 
management  may  step  in  and  direct  his  powers  more  intelli- 
gently; but  sooner  or  later  his  physiological  limit  is  again 
reached  on  the  new  plane.  Try  as  we  will  we  cannot  get 
away  from  the  fact  that  so  long  as  machines  need  men, 
physiological  laws  must  be  reckoned  with  as  a  factor  in  in- 
dustrialism. 

These  general  principles  are  well  illustrated  by  a  con- 
sideration of  fatigue.  Fatigue  is  a  potent  physiological 
state  which  enters  into  all  human  activities.  In  its  normal 
manifestation  it  is  a  warning.  If  the  warning  is  not  heeded, 
the  condition  may  become  pathological,  and  that  is  a  sign  of 
something  serious.  This  remarkable  mechanism  of  ours, 
the  human  body,  is  capable  of  meeting  enormous  demands 
upon  itself — it  is  long  resistant  to  abuse.  But  if  work  is 
done,  rest  is  ultimately  imperative.  Work  and  rest  indeed 
are  as  close  coordinates  as  are  light  and  darkness.  Without 
the  one  the  other  is  destruction.  Much  remains  to  be  dis- 
covered of  fatigue  and  rest,  and  especially  as  to  their  rela- 
tions in  industrialism,  but  enough  is  already  known  to  make 
clear  that  such  knowledge  ought  to  be  recognized  in  and 
applied  to  the  rational  industrial  procedure  of  the  future. 
There  is  nothing  more  pathetic  than  to  see  an  employer  dis- 
regard the  laws  of  physiology,  use  his  helper  to  the  break- 
ing point,  and  then  cast  him  aside. 

Miss  Goldmark  has  performed  a  helpful  task  well. 
She  is  fortunate  in  possessing  a  knowledge  both  of  physio- 
logical laws  and  of  the  conditions  of  industrial  labor.  Her 
keen  vision,  her  intelligent  sympathy,  her  capacity  for  critical 
analysis,  and  her  apt  power  of  expression  are  effectively 
united  in  this  book.  She  has  made  a  powerful  plea  for  the 
alleviation  on  rational,  scientific  grounds  of  human  misery 
in  one  sphere  of  its  manifestation,  and  she  deserves  the  appre- 
ciation and  gratitude  of  all  who  are  interested  in  the  promo- 
tion of  human  efficiency. 

Frederic  S.  Lee 

Columbia  University 
April  2,  1912 


AUTHOR'S  PREFACE 

ALMOST  five  years  have  elapsed  since  I  first  undertook, 
as  Chairman  of  the  Committee  on  the  Legal  Defense 
L  of  Labor  Laws  of  the  National  Consumers'  League, 
to  prepare  the  first  of  the  briefs  contained  in  Part  1 1  of 
this  volume. 

I  have  related  in  Part  I,  from  the  lay  point  of  view,  a 
variety  of  technical  matters,  physiological,  economic,  and 
legal.  In  the  desire  to  cite  concrete  particulars  in  support 
of  all  general  or  abstract  statements,  much  space  has  been 
given  to  illustrations  from  contemporary  industrial  life. 
And  since  these  matters  are  for  the  most  part  still  contro- 
versial, effort  has  been  made  to  give,  in  the  footnotes,  the 
confirming  documentary  authorities.  Wherever  it  has  been 
necessary  to  choose  between  public  or  private  research  in 
describing  facts,  preference  has  been  shown  to  the  reports  of 
government  investigation,  since  they  are  usually  held  to  be 
the  more  impersonal  records. 

1  have  endeavored  throughout  to  steer  a  middle  course 
between  the  technical  and  the  popular,  aiming  to  pursue 
the  technical  arguments  only  so  far  as  they  are  essential  for 
serious  discussion,  without  involving  the  reader  in  technical 
intricacies  needed  only  by  the  specialist. 

This  was  the  principle  followed  also  in  preparing  the 
material  for  Part  1 1  which  was  originally  contained  in  various 
briefs.  The  initial  suggestion  so  to  present  the  world's  ex- 
perience regarding  women's  hours  of  labor,  in  defense  of  the 
first  woman's  labor  law  before  the  United  States  Supreme 
Court,  came  from  Mr.  Louis  D.  Brandeis.  1  have  described 
in  Chapter  IX  his  connection  with  these  briefs.  They  were 
prepared  under  his  personal  direction,  and  have  been  used  by 
him  in  the  successful  defense  of  various  state  laws  limiting 
women's  hours  of  labor.     A  special  fund  was  raised  by  the 


Vlll  AUTHOR  S    PREFACE 

National  Consumers'  League  to  meet  the  heavy  expense  of 
printing  briefs  of  such  large  compass.  They  are  reprinted 
here  to  meet  a  steady  demand  for  documents  in  a  sense 
historical,  from  colleges  and  libraries,  as  well  as  from  persons 
engaged  in  the  more  practical  business  of  securing  labor 
legislation.  The  briefs  are  reprinted  substantially  intact,  as 
they  were  submitted  to  the  courts;  for  while,  taken  sepa- 
rately, they  contain  evidence  and  opinions  of  unequal  worth, 
\'et  their  main  value  consists  in  precisely  the  cumulative  testi- 
mony and  the  unconscious  unanimities  of  experience  revealed. 

Thanks  are  due  to  many  persons  for  their  assistance  in 
collecting  the  widely  scattered  material  contained  in  the 
briefs.  The  Russell  Sage  Foundation  co-operated  with  the 
National  Consumers'  League,  supplying  the  funds  for  a 
small  staff  of  readers,  who  under  my  direction  covered  a 
literature  of  wide  but  uncharted  range.  1  am  glad  to  ac- 
knowledge here  the  valuable  assistance  of  Miss  L.  L.  Dock, 
R.  N.,  whose  technical  knowledge  enabled  her  to  supply 
most  of  the  translations  from  French  and  German  authorities 
quoted  in  the  briefs.  Dr.  Ira  P.  Wile  of  New  York  kindly 
read  all  of  the  scientific  authorities  quoted  in  the  briefs,  and 
gave  the  benefit  of  his  advice  in  the  choice  of  such  material. 
For  access  to  the  scattered  files  of  European  reports,  and  for 
other  courtesies,  1  am  indebted  to  several  libraries,  chief 
among  them  the  Library  of  Columbia  University,  the  Library 
of  Congress  at  Washington,  and  the  Library  of  the  United 
States  Bureau  of  Labor.  To  Dr.  Zacher,  of  the  German 
Imperial  Insurance  Office,  1  am  indebted  for  material  not 
otherwise  easily  accessible. 

In  writing  the  text  of  Part  I — a  task  which  has  been 
necessarily  interrupted  by  the  various  cases  and  legislative 
work  arising  within  the  past  four  years — 1  have  been  con- 
stantly aided,  in  untold  ways,  by  Mr.  Brandeis'  generous 
and  stimulating  counsel,  without  which  this  book  would 
not  have  been  undertaken,  and  for  which  I  am  more  in  his 
debt  than  these  poor  words  can  express. 

1  am  under  great  obligations  to  Dr.  Frederic  S.  Lee, 
Dalton  Professor  of  Physiology  at  Columbia  University,  for 


AUTHOR  S    PREFACE  IX 

taking  time,  in  the  midst  of  his  scientific  activities,  to  read 
all  the  proof  sheets  of  my  text  and  to  give  the  benefit  of 
his  criticisms  in  the  field  of  which  he  is  a  master. 

The  manuscript  was  read  also  by  two  other  persons — 
my  sister,  Pauline  Goldmark,  and  Mrs.  Florence  Kelley. 
To  both  1  am  indebted  for  valuable  criticism.  To  Mrs. 
Kelley  1  owe  gratitude  also  for  years  of  the  most  generous 
association  in  the  work  of  the  National  Consumers'  League, 
and  for  the  stimulus  of  that  pure  spirit  of  justice  towards  all 
mankind  of  which  she  is,  as  it  were,  a  voice  and  an  embodi- 
ment. 


PREFACE  TO  THE  THIRD  EDITION 

The  first  two  editions  of  this  book  contained,  as  Part 
II,  reprints  of  various  briefs  defending  laws  which  regulate 
women's  hours  of  labor.  In  response  to  a  demand  for  a 
smaller  volume,  the  text  contained  in  Part  I  of  the  earlier 
edition  is  here  reprinted  undei*  the  same  title  as  the  com- 
plete edition. 

The  present  edition  contains  a  new  and  complete  com- 
pilation of  the  American  laws  regulating  women's  hours  of 
labor.  It  gives  not  only  extracts  from  the  statutes  of  all 
the  states,  but  also  comparative  schedules,  in  tabular  form, 
which  show  at  a  glance  the  standing  of  each  state  in  regard 
to  the  degree  of  protection  afforded. 


TABLE  OF  CONTENTS 


PAGE 


Introduction.     By  Frederic  S.  Lee,  Ph.D v 

Author's  Preface vii 

Preface  to  the  Third  Edition ix 

I.  Introductory 3 

II.  The  Nature  OF  Fatigue 9 

1.  One  Factor  in  Fatigue:   Accumulation  of  Waste  Products  .  11 

2.  The  Measurement  of  Muscular  Fatigue 14 

(a)  In  animals 14 

(b)  In  man 18 

3.  Another  Factor  in  Fatigue:   Consumption  of  Energy-Yield- 

ing Substance 20 

(a)  The    Chemistry    of    Muscular  Contraction:     How 

Glycogen  is  Supplied  and  Consumed        ...  21 

(b)  How  Oxygen  is  Supplied  for  Muscular  Contraction    .  23 

4.  The  Nature  of  the  Fatigue  Products 25 

5.  The  Nature  of  Nervous  Fatigue 27 

(a)  The  Nervous  System,  Central  and  Peripheral     .       .  28 

(b)  The  Location  of  Nervous  Fatigue 29 

6.  The  Rise  and  Fall  of  Working  Capacity 33 

(a)  Work  Continued  Under  Fatigue  Costs  More  Effort  .  33 

(b)  The  Nature  of  Training 35 

7.  The  Greater  Morbidity  of  Women 39 

III.  The  New  Strain  in  Industry 43 

1.  Speed  and  Complexity 43 

(a)  The  Telephone  Service 43 

(b)  Speed  in  the  Needle  Trades 53 

(c)  The  Textile  Industry 56 


TABLE    OF   CONTENTS 


2.  Monotony 

(a)  The  Canneries  . 

(b)  Shoe  Making    . 

3.  Physiology  of  Monotony    . 

4.  Noise 

5.  Fatigue  and  Industrial  Accidents 

6.  Rhythm 

7.  Piece-Work 

8.  Overtime 


PAGB 

58 
59 
64 
67 
68 
71 
79 
82 
84 


IV.  Some    Specific     Studies     of     Physical     Overstrain     in 

Industry 90 

1.  Infant  Mortality 91 

2.  Low  Birth  Rate 95 

"~^    3.   Race  Degeneration 97 

4.  Lack  of  Information  in  the  United  States     ....  100 

5.  Medical   Study  of  Working  People  in  Foreign    Insurance 

Societies 101 

^  6.  The  Increase  of  Nervous  Disorders 103 

7.  General  Predisposition  to  Disease Ill 

8.  A  New  Medical  Scrutiny  of  Overwork 112 

9.  Opportunities  for  Such  Study  in  the  United  States  .        .        .115 


Economic    Aspect    of    Regulation:     Fatigue    and    Out- 
put   121 

1.  General  Experience  in  England 123 

2.  General  Experience  in  the  United  States        ....  131 

3.  An  Experimental  Study  of  Output 133 

4.  The  Experience  of  the  Salford  Iron  Works  at  Manchester, 

England 138 

5.  The  Experience  of  the  Engis  Chemical  Works  near  Liege, 

Belgium 144 

6.  The  Experience  of  the  Zeiss  Optical  Works  at  Jena, Germany  155 

7.  The  Trend  Toward  Shorter  Hours  in  the  United  States      .  166 


Regularity    of    Employment:      Fatigue    and    Overtime 

Work 174 

1.  Overtime  as  a  Separate  Issue 174 

2.  Overtime  and  Regularity 176 


TABLE    OF   CONTENTS 

PAGE 

3.  Efforts  to  Equalize  Seasons 177 

4.  The  Adaptation  of  Customers 179 

5.  The  Policy  of  Persuasion  by  Consumers 181 

6.  The  Legal  Prohibition  of  Overtime 183 

VII.  The   New  Science   of    Management:    its    Relation    to 

Human  Energies 191 

1.  Differences  Between   Ordinary  Speeding-up  and  the  New 

System 192 

2.  Benefits  of  the  New  System 200 

3.  Dangers  of  the  New  System 202 

4.  Scientific  Management  and  Collective  Bargaining  .        .        .  207 

VI 11.  The  Enforcement  of  Labor  Laws 210 

1.  The  Rigid  Law:  Historical  Development  in  Massachusetts.  211 

2.  The  Rigid  Law:  Historical  Development  in  Great   Britain  215 

3.  The  Elastic  Law:  Historical  Development  in  Great  Britain  217 

4.  Elastic  Laws  in  the  United  States 222 

5.  Two  Tests  of  Efficiency 227 

(a)  The  Annual  Report 227 

(b)  The  Observation  of  Health  in  Industrial  Establish- 

ments       232 

6.  Some  Technical  Requirements  in  Factory  Inspection   .        .  235 

IX.  Labor  Laws  and  the  Courts 241 

1.  The  Police  Power 241 

2.  The  "Freedom  of  Contract"  Theory 242 

The  First  Ritchie  Case 243 

The  Case  of  Holden  v.  Hardy 244 

The  Lochner  Case 245 

The  Williams  Case  and  its  Challenge 246 

The  Oregon  Case  and  a  New  Line  of  Defense.  .        .        .  250 

The  Second  Ritchie  Case 252 

3.  The  Distinctions  of  Sex 252 

4.  The  Question  of  Discrimination 256 

X,  Prohibition    of   Women's    Night   Work:     a    Prime     Ne- 
cessity    258 

1.  The  International  Convention  on  Night  Work       .        .        .  258 

2.  The  Case  Against  Night  Work  Abroad 264 

3.  Night  Work  in  the  United  States 268 

XI.  Conclusion 277 

xiii 


TABLE    OF    CONTENTS 

APPENDICES  PAGE 

A.  Laws  Regulating  Women's  Labor 291 

L  Comparative  Schedules 291 

A.  Hours  of  Labor 291 

B.  Overtime  Allowed 302 

C.  Exemptions 303 

D.  Night  Work     .        .       .        .' 304 

IL  Extracts  from  Statutes 305 

B.  Opinion  of  United  States  Supreme  Court  in  Muller  v.  State 

of  Oregon 321 

Index 329 


FATIGUE  AND  EFFICIENCY 


I 

INTRODUCTORY 

THE  aim  of  this  book  is  to  present,  as  a  new  basis  for 
labor  legislation,  the  results  of  the  modern  study  of 
fatigue.  It  seeks  to  show  what  fatigue  is,  its  nature 
and  effects,  and  to  explain  the  phenomena  of  overwork  in 
working  people.  It  draws  upon  the  scientific  study  of  fatigue 
— one  of  the  most  modern  inquiries  of  physiological,  chemical, 
and  psychological  science — for  aid  in  the  practical  problem 
of  reducing  the  long  working  day  in  industry. 

Such  a  scientific  basis  of  legislation  has  been  almost 
wholly  absent  during  the  century  which  has  elapsed  since  the 
first  factory  laws  were  enacted.  First  for  lack  of  the  neces- 
sary scientific  equipment,  and  in  recent  times,  for  lack  of  that 
coordination  of  knowledge  which  should  apply  the  teaching 
of  science  to  the  problems  of  a  new  industrial  order,  labor 
legislation  has  been  deprived  of  the  authoritative  sanction 
which  it  might  have.  In  this  country,  at  least,  the  laws  of 
fatigue,  verified  by  years  of  experiment  in  the  seclusion  of 
the  laboratory,  have  been  practically  unknown  to  those  who 
have  been  most  active  in  preserving  for  working  people  a 
minimum  of  human  leisure. 

Yet  such  scientific  authority  is  precisely  what  is  most 
needed  today  for  a  more  rational  progress  in  the  future 
than  in  the  past;  something  more  exact  and  demonstrable 
than  the  appeal  to  pity,  less  subject  to  temporary  varia- 
tions than  what  the  Italian  physiologist  Treves  calls  the 
"illusory  profits  of  long  hours."  Just  because  the  more 
cruel,  dramatic  exploitation  of  workers  is  in  the  main  a  thing 
of  the  past,  exact  scientific  proof  is  needed  of  the  more  subtle 
injuries  of  modern  industry,  its  practically  illimitable  speed 
and  strain.     After  a  hundred  years  of  human  experience 

3 


FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 

throughout  the  world,  it  remains  true  in  our  own  country 
that  the  most  helpless  workers  are  still,  in  respect  to  the 
length  of  their  working  hours,  the  least  protected. 

The  most  recent  government  investigation  of  the  iron 
and  steel  industry  in  the  United  States  shows*  that  of  the 
172,671  employes  whose  hours  of  labor  were  reported  in  May, 
1910,  nearly  one-half  (42.58  per  cent)  were  kept  at  work 
seventy-two  hours  a  week  or  over;  that  is,  at  least  twelve 
hours  daily  on  six  days  of  the  week.  Nearly  a  quarter  of  all 
the  workers  (20.59  per  cent)  were  kept  employed  eighty-four 
or  more  hours  in  the  week;  that  is,  at  least  twelve  hours  each 
day,  including  Sundays.  In  the  largest  single  department 
in  the  industry,  the  blast  furnaces,  88  per  cent  of  the  31,321 
employes,  engaged  in  both  productive  and  general  occupa- 
tions, were  regularly  kept  at  work  seven  days  in  the  week. 

These  prodigious  and  terrible  figures  concern  the  work 
of  men.  It  might  reasonably  be  supposed  that  the  century- 
long  effort  to  gain  legal  protection  for  women  and  children  in 
industry  would  have  safeguarded  them  from  the  bare  possi- 
bility of  such  inhuman  usage. 

But,  to  mention  only  random  examples,  young  boys  of 
fourteen  years  may  still  be  employed  all  night  long  in  Penn- 
sylvania, West  Virginia,  and  other  great  glass  producing 
states;  girls  upon  reaching  their  sixteenth  birthday  in  New 
York  state  may  be  employed  twelve  hours  a  day  during  five 
days  of  the  week  in  factories,!  and  unlimited  hours  in  stores 
during  the  season  of  "rush"  before  Christmas.  The  decision 
of  the  Illinois  Supreme  Court  in  1910,  upholding  the  constitu- 
tionality of  the  ten-hour  law  for  women  employed  in  fac- 
tories and  laundries,  is  estimated  to  have  freed  from  over- 
strain in  Illinois  alone  more  than  30,000  working  women  who 
were  employed  over  ten  hours  a  day.     Some  great  manu- 

*  Report  on  Conditions  of  Employment  in  tke  Iron  and  Steel  Indus- 
try in  the  United  States.  Summary  of  the  Wages  and  Hours  of  Labor,  pp. 
36  and  57.     Senate  Document  No.  301,  62nd  Congress,  2nd  Session,  1912. 

t  The  New  Yorl<  factory  law  was  amended  in  1912  so  as  to  prohibit 
the  employment  of  women  more  than  ten  hours  in  one  day  or  fifty-four 
hours  in  one  week. 


INTRODUCTORY 

facturing  states,  such  as  Alabama  and  Mississippi  in  the 
south,  and  New  Jersey  in  the  north,*  set  no  legal  limitation 
whatsoever  upon  the  hours  of  women's  employment.  This  is 
true  also  of  other  states,  such  as  Delaware,  Kansas,  and 
Iowa,  where  manufacture  is  not  yet  foremost  but  where 
thousands  of  women  are  working  overlong  hours  in  laun- 
dries, restaurants,  and  department  stores.  Indeed,  only  15 
states  t  have  enacted  laws  to  check  the  overwork  of  women 
in  the  exhausting  service  of  the  modern  department  store; 
and  conspicuous  by  their  absence  from  among  these,  are 
states  with  large  commercial  centers,  such  as  Maryland,* 
New  York,  Ohio,  and  Rhode  Island. 

Like  most  human  institutions,  factory  legislation  has 
been  founded  on  no  a  priori  logic.  It  has  been,  rather,  es- 
sentially illogical,  the  result  of  half-way  measures  and  op- 
posing forces.  During  the  nineteenth  century,  while  agri- 
cultural Europe  and  America  were  gradually  becoming  in- 
dustrial and  the  whole  face  of  nature  reflected  the  new  order, 
the  history  of  factory  legislation — the  state's  defense  of  its 
workers — has  been  devious  advance  and  compromise.  Self- 
interest  on  the  one  side,  self-defense  and  philanthropy  on  the 
other,  hampered  by  prejudices  of  every  sort, — these  for  the 
most  part  have  brought  about  such  protection  as  exists  today. 
Not  man's  foresight,  but  the  inexorable  results  of  labor  long 
carried  on  counter  to  nature's  laws,  have  been  on  the  whole 
responsible  for  the  meager  protection  which  industrial  com- 
munities have  granted  their  workers. 

1  n  the  main,  opposition  to  laws  protecting  working  women 
and  children  has  come  from  the  unenlightened  employer,  who 
has  been  blind  to  his  own  larger  interests  and  who  has  always 
seen  in  every  attempt  to  protect  the  workers  an  interference 
with  business  and  dividends.    To  this  day,  it  is  the  shortsighted 

*  New  Jersey,  Maryland  and  Kentucky  have  enacted  ten-hour  laws 
for  women  as  this  book  goes  to  press  (April,  1912). 

t  California,  Connecticut,  Illinois,  Louisiana,  Massachusetts,  Michi- 
gan, Minnesota,  Missouri,  Nebraska,  Oregon,  Pennsylvania,  South  Caro- 
lina, Utah,  Washington,  and  Wisconsin.  The  New  York  law  applies  only 
to  girls  up  to  21  years. 

5 


FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 

and  narrow-minded  spirit  of  money-making  that  is  the  most 
persistent  enemy  of  measures  designed  to  save  the  workers 
from  exhaustion  and  to  conserve  their  working  capacities. 
Work  itself  is  of  the  essence  of  hfe;  without  it,  man's  physi- 
cal as  well  as  his  moral  nature  decays.  Regular  continuous 
labor  and  exertion  is  as  necessary  for  the  worker's  health 
as  it  is  for  subsistence,  and  if  legislation  regulating  the 
workday  had  sought  to  invade  legitimate  work,  it  would 
long  ago  have  defeated  its  own  end.  What  it  does  seek  is  to 
check  and  control  overwork,  to  conserve  the  workers  from 
labor  which  leaves  them  spent  and  worn  at  thirty-five  and 
forty  years,  when  they  should  be  in  their  prime. 

In  most  European  countries,  and  in  some  of  our  states, 
legislation  has  usually  been  preceded  by  parliamentary  com- 
missions and  investigations.  The  testimony  of  physicians 
who  have  practiced  among  factory  populations,  and  factory 
inspectors  who  have  been  in  daily  contact  with  the  workers, 
furnishes  an  impressive  array  of  opinions  and  evidence  on  the 
practical  effects  of  the  long  working  day. 

Thus,  for  example,  when  in  the  first  days  of  factory  leg- 
islation, almost  a  century  ago,  Sadler's  Committee  sat  and 
learned  what  the  working  children  of  England  were  suffering, 
the  most  impressive  testimony  was  that  of  the  physicians. 
Many  medical  men  in  turn  testified  to  the  hideous  overwork 
menacing  the  health  of  England.  By  1844  Lord  Shaftes- 
bury could  maintain  in  Parliament  that,  since  1816,  80  sur- 
geons and  physicians  and  three  medical  commissioners  speak- 
ing for  the  medical  men  of  Lancashire,  had  asserted  "the 
prodigious  evil  of  the  system."  *  Buried  in  musty  volumes 
on  remote  library  shelves,  describing  cruelties  to  children  now 
happily  long  past,  these  terrible  pages  of  testimony  strike 
at  the  outset  the  keynote  of  factory  legislation:  the  benefit 
to  health  and  output,  to  physical  and  economic  life. 

Just  seventy-five  years  later,  in  another  continent, 
another  memorable  group  of  physicians  presented  what  is, 
perhaps,  the  most  impressive  medical  testimony  of  the  last 

*  Hansard's  Parliamentary  Debates,  3rd  Series,  March  15,  1844. 

6 


INTRODUCTORY 

quarter  century  on  the  subject  of  overwork.  This  was  in  the 
controversy  between  the  Bell  Telephone  Company  of  To- 
ronto, Canada,  and  their  girl  employes,  concerning  a  species 
of  industrial  strain  unknown  to  the  early  nineteenth  century, 
typical  of  almost  incredible  changes  wrought  in  less  than 
three  generations.  Twenty-six  prominent  Toronto  physi- 
cians and  neurologists  described  the  injuries  accruing  to 
young  women  in  the  exhausting  telephone  service,  and  laid 
down  what  seemed  to  them  minimum  requirements  for  health 
and  efficiency.* 

The  testimony  of  physicians,  of  which  these  are  the 
earliest  and  latest  examples,  and  the  long  files  of  factory 
inspectors'  reports,  repeat  in  country  after  country,  in  his- 
torical sequence,  similar  experiences:  the  same  enthusiasm 
for  industrial  expansion  with  indiscriminate  employment  of 
old  and  young;  the  same  exploitation,  the  same  suffering, 
and  the  same  need  of  protection.  Conditions  and  industrial 
processes  differ,  different  trades  are  described,  different  people 
discussed,  but,  unknown  to  one  another,  and  terrible  in  their 
unconscious  unanimity,  these  observers  ring  the  changes  upon 
the  common  human  facts  at  issue — exhaustion  and  deteri- 
oration following  in  the  wake  of  the  long  working  day  and 
working  night.  Workers  of  many  nations  pass  before  one 
as  one  reads;  men,  women,  and  young  children  drawn  into 
the  industrial  whirlpool,  as  the  wave  of  invention  and  de- 
velopment strikes  their  respective  countries, — and  protec- 
tion follows  slowly  after. 

Thus,  England  stood  first  in  industry  at  the  close  of  the 
eighteenth  century.  By  the  time  one  generation  had  grown 
up  under  the  new  regime,  the  evils  of  exploitation  called  ir- 
resistibly for  some  check,  and  the  first  general  act  in  protec- 
tion of  working  children — feeble  precursor  of  a  long  sequence 
— was  passed  in  1833.  France,  the  next  to  enter  the  in- 
dustrial race,  began  to  legislate  for  the  workers  in  the  late 

*  Report  of  the  Royal  Commission  on  a  Dispute  Respecting  Hours  of 
Employment,  between  the  Bell  Telephone  Company  of  Canada,  Ltd.,  and 
Operators  at  Toronto,  Ontario.     Ottawa,  1907. 


FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 

forties,  Switzerland  following  in  the  seventies,  Austria,  Hol- 
land, and  Germany  in  the  next  two  decades,  Italy  at  the 
close  of  the  century.  Similarly  in  our  own  country,  Massa- 
chusetts and  the  other  New  England  states  where  the  first 
cotton  mills  were  operated,  were  the  first  to  find  that  legis- 
lative protection  must  shield  the  workers  to  conserve  them. 

First  the  new  industry,  then  exploitation,  then  the  de- 
mand for  some  measure  of  protection — such  is  the  universal 
story.  Nor  is  this  a  chance  sequence.  It  is  the  relentless 
record  of  history,  the  more  impressive  for  its  unconscious 
testimony  to  a  waste  of  human  effort  and  experience,  in 
retrospect  scarcely  credible  among  a  thinking  people,  yet  in 
our  very  midst  persisting  steadily  to  this  day. 


II 

THE  NATURE  OF  FATIGUE 

STRIKING  as  is  the  unanimity  of  the  world's  indus- 
trial experience  and  the  testimony  of  observers  in  each 
country  as  to  the  need  of  more  complete  protection  for 
the  workers,  such  empirical  data  furnish,  after  all,  no  scien- 
tific basis  for  labor  legislation.  They  are  arguments,  legiti- 
mate presumptions  in  its  favor,  not  scientific  proof. 

Yet  a  scientific  ground  for  such  legislation  does  exist 
and  is  available  today.  The  fundamental  basis  for  laws 
regulating  the  working  hours  of  men,  women,  or  children  in 
industrial  occupations — at  the  spindle  or  loom,  in  machine 
shops  or  laundries,  behind  the  counter  or  in  the  glass-houses 
— is  the  common  physiological  phenomenon,  fatigue,  the 
normal  result  of  all  human  action.  For  fatigue  is  nature's 
warning  signal  that  the  limit  of  activity  is  approaching.  Ex- 
haustion, or  overfatigue,  follows  when  the  warning  is  dis- 
regarded and  the  organism  is  pushed  beyond  its  limits  by 
further  forced  exertions. 

In  this  inexorable  sequence,  subject  to  countless  varia- 
tions but  never  failing,  we  have  a  broad  fundamental  basis 
for  the  short  working  day  in  industry:  a  physiological  neces- 
sity inherent  in  man's  structure  for  allowing  an  adequate 
margin  of  rest.  The  regulation  of  working  hours  is  the  neces- 
sary mechanism  to  prevent  overfatigue  or  exhaustion,  fore- 
runner of  countless  miseries  to  individuals  and  whole  nations. 

It  is  precisely  in  explaining  the  normal  and  abnormal 
aspects  of  fatigue,  its  nature,  effects,  and  relation  to  all  human 
life,  that  science  can  give  its  authoritative  sanction  to  labor 
legislation.  For,  during  the  last  century,  unknown  to  those 
who  saw  the  practical  results  of  overwork  in  industry  and 

9 


FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 

sought  a  legal  remedy  year  after  year,  so  often  in  vain,  men 
of  various  sciences  were  studying  the  same  phenomena  in  the 
laboratory.  The  physiologist,  chemist,  bacteriologist,  and 
psychologist  have  contributed  to  the  study.  The  scientific 
investigations  of  fatigue  in  its  varied  aspects  make  up  a  wide 
and  growing  literature.  In  spite  of  still  unverified  details, 
the  underlying  principles  and  laws  have  been  agreed  upon. 

The  study  of  fatigue,  as  applied  to  industry,  is  not  an 
academic  nor  a  remote  speculation.  It  shows  why  the  system 
of  long  hours  must,  physiologically,  result  in  human  deteriora- 
tion and  inferior  output.  It  should  help,  also,  to  determine 
what  protection  is  needed  in  the  future  for  workers  under 
modern  conditions  of  labor,  viewing  the  new  conditions  and 
their  demand  on  human  energies  from  the  physiological 
standpoint. 

Such  a  change  of  front,  indeed,  from  the  purely  economic 
to  the  broadly  physiological,  is  what  this  study  chiefly  advo- 
cates. Heretofore,  the  scientifically  wellknown  principles 
of  fatigue  have  not  been  utilized  in  the  protection  of  the 
workers,  just  because  they  have  been  unknown  to  those 
persons  who  could  have  benefited  most  directly:  the  legis- 
lators who  frame  the  laws,  the  enlightened  employers  who 
need  legislation  to  restrain  unscrupulous  competitors,  the 
trade  unions  and  philanthropic  agencies  which  have  pro- 
moted legislation,  and  the  judges  whose  official  sanction  of 
the  laws  must  precede  enforcement.  To  all  these,  in  the 
main,  the  contributions  of  science  on  the  subject  have  been 
unknown.  To  the  scientist,  on  the  other  hand,  the  industrial 
world  has  been  an  undiscovered  country.  Even  physicians 
and  students  of  hygiene  are  to  a  large  extent  unacquainted 
with  the  vast  speed  and  complexity  of  processes  to  which 
industrial  workers  are  subjected.  They  hardly  know,  for 
instance,  how  machinery  is  additionally  speeded  each  year; 
how,  to  cite  a  single  example  from  the  needle  trades,  the 
newest  power  sewing  machines  run  by  girl  operators  carry 
12  needles  instead  of  one,  or  set  almost  4000  stitches  a  minute, 
each  thread  and  needle  to  be  intently  watched  for  breaking  as 

lO 


THE    NATURE    OF    FATIGUE 


the  material  is  guided  on  its  rapid  passage.  Changes  of 
which  this  is  typical  have  added  to  the  strain  of  industry  in  a 
progressive  ratio,  and,  obviously,  add  also  to  all  the  elements 
which  make  up  the  worker's  fatigue. 


1.    ONE    FACTOR    IN    FATIGUE:    ACCUMULATION  OF    WASTE 

PRODUCTS 

A  brief  account  of  the  scientific  views  of  fatigue  must  be 
given,  before  considering  their  practical  application  to  the 
problem  of  overstrain  in  industry.  We  must  familiarize 
ourselves  with  enough  of  the  technical  vocabulary  and  history 
to  understand  the  scientific  conception  of  fatigue  in  general, 
and  that  of  industrial  workers  in  particular. 

Physiology  teaches  that  life  is  a  continual  change  of 
structure.  The  structural  basis  of  all  tissue,  muscular, 
nervous,  connective,  etc.,  is  the  cell.  The  life  of  the  tissue 
consists  in  chemical  combination  of  the  protoplasm  or  sub- 
stance of  the  tissue  cells  with  the  nutritive  materials  derived 
from  food  stuffs  and  the  oxygen  of  the  air.  The  distinctive 
property  of  the  cell — that  indeed  which  makes  it  living — is 
its  power  of  taking  to  itself  and  converting  to  its  own  sub- 
stance materials  that  are  not  living.  This  is  a  double  process; 
for,  just  as  the  potential  stuff  is  seized  and  wrought  into 
live  tissue,  so  the  outworn,  dead  matter  which  is  no  longer 
of  use  is  cast  off  and  ultimately  expelled  from  the  body. 

This  never-ending,  never-ceasing  business  of  life  was 
depicted  by  Sir  Michael  Foster,  the  foremost  British  physi- 
ologist, with  all  the  delicacy  of  fancy.* 

"Did  we  possess  some  optic  aid,"  he  writes,  "which 
should  overcome  the  grossness  of  our  vision,  so  that  we 
might  watch  the  dance  of  atoms  in  this  double  process  of 
making  and  unmaking  in  the  living  body,  we  should  see  the 
commonplace  lifeless  things  which  are  brought  by  the  blood, 
and  which  we  call  the  food,  caught  up  into  and  made  part  of 

*  Foster,  Sir  Michael:  Weariness.  (Being  the  Rede  Lecture  delivered 
before  the  members  of  the  University  of  Cambridge,  June  14,  1893.)  The 
Nineteenth  Century,  Vol.  34,  No.  199,  p.  339.     (Sept.,  1893.) 

II 


FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 

the  molecular  whorls  of  the  living  muscle,  linked  together  for 
a  while  in  the  intricate  figures  of  the  dance  of  life,  giving  and 
taking  energy  as  they  dance;  and  then  we  should  see  how, 
loosing  hands,  they  slipped  back  into  the  blood  as  dead,  inert, 
used-up  matter.  In  every  tiny  block  of  muscle  there  is  a 
part  which  is  really  alive,  there  are  parts  which  are  becoming 
alive,  there  are  parts  which  have  been  alive  but  are  now 
dying  or  dead;  there  is  an  upward  rush  from  the  lifeless  to 
the  living,  a  downward  rush  from  the  living  to  the  dead. 
This  is  always  going  on,  whether  the  muscle  be  quiet  and  at 
rest,  or  whether  it  be  active  and  moving.  Some  of  the 
capital  of  living  material  is  always  being  spent,  changed  into 
dead  waste,  some  of  the  new  food  is  always  being  raised  into 
living  capital." 

Two  processes  of  cellular  life  are  thus  continually  carried 
on  in  the  living  body:  assimilation,  or  building  up,  known  as  . 
anabolism;  disassimilation,  or  breaking  down  material  into 
simpler  chemical  forms  (ultimately  expelled  as  waste  prod- 
ucts), known  as  catabolism.  Upon  these  two  processes 
together,  or  metabolism,  life  itself  depends,  and  to  this 
fundamental  basis  of  life  we  must  turn  for  an  explanation  of 
what  fatigue  is. 

The  blood  is  the  medium  through  which  nutritive  ma- 
terials are  carried  to  the  tissues,  and  through  which  also 
the  chemical  products  of  tissue  destruction  are  carried  off. 
These  chemical  wastes  are  poisonous  impurities,  created  by 
the  vital  activities  of  the  organism,  and  it  is  precisely  to  their 
accumulation  in  the  blood  that  fatigue  is  largely  due. 

In  Sir  Michael  Foster's  words:* 

"As  the  breath  of  man  is  poison  to  his  fellow  men,  so  the 
outcome  of  the  life  of  each  part  of  the  body,  each  tissue,  be  it 
muscle,  brain,  or  what  not,  is  a  poison  to  that  part  and  its 
fellows,  and  may  be  a  poison  to  yet  other  parts.  Of  each 
member,  while  it  may  be  said  that  the  blood  is  the  life  thereof, 
it  may  with  equal  truth  be  said,  the  blood  is  the  death  thereof; 
the  blood  is  the  channel  for  food,  but  it  is  also  a  pathway  for 
poison." 

*  Op.  cit.,  p.  350. 
12 


THE    NATURE    OF    FATIGUE 

During  activity,  as  will  be  shown  later,  the  products  of 
chemical  change  increase.  A  tired  person  is  literally  and 
actually  a  poisoned  person — poisoned  by  his  own  waste 
products.  But  so  marvelously  is  the  body  constructed  that, 
like  a  running  stream,  it  purifies  itself,  and  during  repose 
these  toxic  impurities  are  normally  burned  up  by  the  oxygen 
brought  by  the  blood,  excreted  by  the  kidneys,  destroyed 
in  the  liver,  or  eliminated  from  the  body  through  the  lungs. 
So  rest  repairs  fatigue. 

This  balance  is  kept  true  and  fatigue  is  repaired  just  as 
long  as  it  remains  within  physiological  limits;  that  is,  as 
long  as  activity  is  balanced  by  repose,  when  the  noxious 
products  of  activity  are  more  quickly  eliminated  and  tissue 
is  rebuilt.  Just  as  soon  as  the  metabolic  equilibrium  is  de- 
stroyed the  organism  becomes  clogged  by  its  own  poisons, 
exhaustion  results,  and  health  is  impaired.  The  physiological 
normal  phenomenon  of  fatigue  becomes  pathological,  or  ab- 
normal exhaustion. 

Health,  even  life  itself,  hangs  upon  the  metabolic  bal- 
ance. In  extreme  instances  of  overexertion,  as  when  hunted 
animals  drop  dead  in  the  chase,  they  die,  not  from  overstrain 
of  any  particular  organ,  such  as  the  heart,  but  from  sheer 
chemical  poisoning  due  to  the  unexpelled  toxins  of  fatigue. 

"The  poisons  are  more  and  more  heaped  up,  poisoning 
the  muscles,  poisoning  the  brain,  poisoning  the  heart,  poison- 
ing at  last  the  blood  itself,  starting  in  the  intricate  machinery 
of  the  body  new  poisons  in  addition  to  themselves.  The 
hunted  hare,  run  to  death,  dies  not  because  he  is  choked  for 
want  of  breath,  not  because  his  heart  stands  still,  its  store  of 
energy  having  given  out,  but  because  a  poisoned  blood  poisons 
his  brain,  poisons  his  whole  body."* 

In  animals  which  have  so  died  of  exhaustion,  the  blood 
is  found  loaded  with  the  products  of  chemical  action.  Ab- 
normally rapid  putrefaction  and  rigidity  of  the  muscles  fol- 
lows after  death.     In  man,  the  occurrence  of  actual  death 

*  Foster,  op.  cit.,  p.  351. 

•3 


FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 

from  overexertion  is  rare.  A  historic  instance  often  quoted 
is  the  case  of  Eukles,  the  immortal  runner  from  Marathon, 
who  fell  dead  as  he  announced  to  Athens  victory  over  the 
Persians.  An  Italian  pathologist,  Professor  Pieraccini  of 
Florence,  quotes  two  interesting  modern  examples  in  Algeria.* 
Two  native  runners  fell  dead  on  arrival,  one  after  covering 
192  kilometers  in  45  hours,  the  other  252  kilometers  in  62 
hours.  Abnormally  rapid  rigidity  and  putrefaction  of  the 
bodies  followed,  and  after  an  autopsy  death  was  ascribed  to 
the  "excess  of  fatigue." 

Such  then  are  the  extremest  results  of  the  self-generated 
poisons  of  fatigue.  Physiological  processes  turn  pathological ; 
the  normal  instruments  of  life  become  agents  of  death. 
Obviously,  on  this  side  of  death,  there  is  a  wide  range  of 
injuries  which  metabolic  products  can  inflict  upon  the  human 
frame.  But  before  addressing  ourselves  to  such  specific  ills 
we  must  examine  more  closely  the  proofs  that  fatigue  results 
from  the  chemical  wastes  of  activity.  We  must  acquaint 
ourselves  with  the  complex  processes  by  which  fatigue  ex- 
hausts and  rest  repairs  the  muscular  and  nervous  functions. 
And  since  this  study  of  fatigue  which  we  are  to  review,  has 
scarcely  yet  concerned  itself  with  the  appearance  of  fatigue 
in  industrial  workers,  we  must  turn  our  attention  tempo- 
rarily from  labor  and  industry  to  the  apparatus  of  the  labor- 
atory and  to  animal  experimentation. 

2.    THE  MEASUREMENT  OF  MUSCULAR  FATIGUE 

(a)  In  Animals 
More  than  forty-five  years  ago,  in  1865,  the  German 
physiologist  Ranke  first  investigated  the  depressant  action 
of  certain  products  of  protoplasmic  activity  upon  muscular 
contraction.!  He  demonstrated  that  if  an  extract  of  fatigued 
frog  muscle  was  injected  into  a  second  frog,  the  muscles  of 

*  Pieraccini,  C:    Patologia  del  Lavoro,  p.  18.     Milan,  1906. 
t  Ranke,  J.:  Tetanus.     Englemann,   Leipzig,  1865;  Centralblatt  fiir 
die  medicinischen  Wissenschaften,  1868,  Vol.  IV,  p.  769. 

14 


THE    NATURE    OF    FATIGUE 

the  second  animal  showed  evidences  of  fatigue.  Their 
power  of  contraction  on  stimulation  was  diminished.  A 
similar  experiment  with  an  extract  made  from  resting  muscle 
had  no  such  effect. 

About  twenty-five  years  later,  the  Italian  scientist  Mosso 
showed  that  the  depressant  action  of  fatigue  substances  is 
not  confined  to  the  tissues  in  which  they  arise.*  He  dem- 
onstrated that  the  blood  becomes  charged  with  these  chem- 
ical wastes  produced  in  the  muscles,  and  carries  them  to  all 
parts  of  the  body.  He  proved  this  by  injecting  the  blood  of 
a  dog  fatigued  by  long  continued  running  into  the  vessels  of 
a  second  dog  from  which  an  equivalent  amount  of  blood  had 
been  drawn.  Upon  this,  the  second  dog  showed  the  usual 
signs  of  fatigue. 

Products  of  muscular  activity  are  thus  shown  to  cause 
symptoms  of  fatigue  when  injected  into  resting  tissue.  In 
the  study  of  muscular  fatigue  we  may  learn  how  these  waste 
products  are  created  and  how  they  affect  the  organism. 
Muscular  fatigue  has  been  longest  studied  since  fatigue  of 
the  muscles  can  be  most  easily  observed  and  registered  by 
certain  instruments  of  precision  or  measurement.  The 
observation  of  fatigue  or  diminished  power  of  reaction  in  frog 
muscles  preceded  Mosso's  famous  studies  of  human  fatigue. 

The  myograph,  designed  by  H.  von  Helmholz,  shows 
how  the  loss  of  energy  in  wearied  frog  muscles  results  from 
noxious  substances  in  the  muscles,  produced  during  work. 
The  leg  muscle  of  a  frog  is  separated  from  the  rest  of  the  body 
and  hung  by  one  end  upon  a  support.  To  the  other  end  of 
the  muscle  a  lever  is  attached  which  comes  in  contact  with  a 
revolving  cylinder  covered  with  sooty  paper.  If  the  leg  is 
at  rest,  a  straight  line  is  traced  upon  the  revolving  cylinder. 
If  the  muscle  is  electrically  stimulated  to  contract,  the  lever 
records  the  contractions  by  upward  and  downward  marks 
upon  the  sooty  surface  of  the  revolving  cylinder,  the  height 
of  the  curves  being  determined  by  the  force  of  the  contrac- 

*  Mosso,  Angelo:  Arch,  fur  Anatomic  u.  Physiologic.  Physiologische 
Abtheilung,  1890,  p.  89. 

15 


FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 


Fig.  1 
Series  of  550  contractions  of  a  frog's  gastrocnemius  muscle,  excised 
and  stimulated  at  intervals  of  two  seconds.  Every  contraction  is  recorded, 
except  at  the  places  indicated  by  the  black  bands,  at  each  of  which  the  rec- 
ords of  fourteen  contractions  are  omitted.  The  record  of  the  first  contrac- 
tion is  at  the  bottom  of  the  figure:  that  of  the  last  one  at  the  top.  Fatigue 
is  shown  in  the  progressive  decrease  in  height  and  the  increase  in  length  of 
the  curves. 


tion.    As  the  muscle  tires,  the  contractions  grow  smaller  and 
smaller  until  finally  the  lever  cannot  be  raised  at  all.* 

It  can  be  shown  that  this  fatigue  of  the  muscles  is  due 
to  the  paralyzing  action  of  the  accumulated  fatigue  products 

*  See  Figures  1,  2,  and  3.  The  illustrations  are  from  The  Nature  of 
Fatigue,  by  F-*rofessor  Frederic  S.  Lee.  Popular  Scieiice  Monthly,  Feb., 
1910.     (Reproduced  by  permission.) 

i6 


THE    NATURE    OF    FATIGUE 


Fig.   2 
Series  of  contractions  of  a  rat's  gastrocnemius  muscle,  excised  and 
stimulated  at  intervals  of  two  and  one-half  seconds.     Fatigue  is  shown  in 
the  progressive  decrease  in  height  of  the  curves. 


in  the  blood.  For  if  at  any  time  after  fatigue  has  set  in,  the 
muscle,  while  suspended,  is  washed  out  through  its  blood- 
vessels with  a  normal  salt  solution,  its  power  to  contract 
returns.  As  soon  as  the  fatigue  products  are  washed  away, 
the  muscle  is  rested.* 


'  See  Figure  4. 
17 


FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 


Fig.  3 
Series  of  contractions  of  the  frog's  gastrocnemius  muscle,  excised  and 
stimulated  at  intervals  of  two  seconds.     Every  fiftieth  contraction  is  re- 
corded.    Fatigue  is  shown  in  the  progressive  lengthening  of  the  descend- 
ing limb  of  the  curves. 


Fig.  4 
Series  of  contractions  of  a  frog's  gastrocnemius  muscle  in  situ  and 
stimulated  at  intervals  of  two  seconds.  The  flow  of  blood  through  the  muscle 
was  stopped  by  ligating  the  artery,  and  the  record  of  fatigue  was  made.  At 
the  break  in  the  series,  the  muscle  rested  five  minutes,  during  which  time  the 
ligature  was  removed  and  the  blood  was  allowed  to  circulate  through  the 
muscle.  The  record  of  contractions  at  the  right  of  the  break  was  made 
immediately  after  the  resting  period,  and  while  the  blood  was  still  circulating. 


(b)    In  Man 
Using  the  same  principle  described  above,  Mosso  devised 
an  apparatus  called  the  ergograph,  to  study  muscular  con- 
traction in  man. 


THE    NATURE    OF    FATIGUE 

"  By  its  means,"  writes  Professor  Frederic  S.  Lee,  him- 
self one  of  the  foremost  American  investigators  in  this  field, 
"  (Mosso)  began  the  long  series  of  studies  of  voluntary  contrac- 
tions in  man,  which  has  made  the  Turin  School  famous  and 
has  immeasurably  extended  our  knowledge  of  fatigue  in  living 
hyman  beings."* 

The  ergograph  is  an  instrument  constructed  so  as  to 
record  the  contractions  of  a  single  muscle  or  group  of  muscles. 
Thus,  for  instance,  the  arm  and  hand,  except  the  middle  finger, 
may  be  supported  and  held  fast.  The  person  experimented 
upon  contracts  his  middle  finger  at  regular  intervals,  thereby 
lifting  a  known  weight  to  a  definite  height  or  stretching  a 
spring  of  known  tension.  As  in  the  myograph,  contractions 
are  recorded  by  curves  upon  a  revolving  cylinder,  and  show 
a  steady  diminution  of  the  lifting  power  of  the  muscles,  the 
rate  and  regularity  of  the  diminution  differing  with  individ- 
uals. If  the  highest  points  of  the  curves  recorded  on  the 
cylinder  are  joined  together,  the  result  is  a  curve  of  charac- 
teristic form  for  each  individual,  known  as  the  curve  of 
fatigue.  This  curve  remains  practically  the  same  for  each 
person  whether  his  contractions  are  voluntary  or  due  to  elec- 
tric stimulation.  Some  persons  obviously  tire  less  quickly 
than  others;  some  work  at  high  pressure  for  a  short  time, 
giving  out  suddenly,  while  others  work  more  slowly  and  regu- 
larly. All  this  is  borne  out  by  the  record  of  the  ergograph, 
which  shows  graphically  on  paper  how  great  are  the  varieties 
of  individual  working  capacities.     (See  Figure  5.) 

In  industrial  occupations,  obviously,  the  working  time 
cannot  be  measured  off  for  each  individual  according  to  his 
special  capacity.  But  the  testimony  of  the  ergograph  to 
the  infinite  varieties  of  endowment  in  strength  and  staying 
capacity  emphasizes  the  need  of  setting  a  fair  maximum 
working  period  which  shall  not  over-reach  the  natural  limits 
of  the  majority  of  individual  workers. 

By  the  use  of  the  ergograph  we  learn  more  of  the  funda- 

*  Lee,  Frederic  S.,  Ph.  D.  (Professor  of  Physiology,  Columbia  Uni- 
versity, New  York):  Fatigue.  Harvey  Lectures,  1905-06,  p.  172.  Phila- 
delphia and  London,  Lippincott,  1906. 

19 


FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 

mental  factors  in  fatigue.  It  is  shown  that  if  sufficient  rests 
are  allowed  between  contractions,  no  fatigue  results.  With  a 
load  of  six  kilograms,  for  instance,  the  flexor  muscle  of  the 
finger  showed  no  fatigue  when  a  rest  of  ten  seconds  was  given 
between  contractions.     But  after  complete  fatigue,  once  the 


Fig.  5 
Series  of  contractions  of  the  flexor  muscles  of  a  human  finger.  The 
muscle  was  stimulated  electrically  every  two  seconds,  and  the  resulting 
contractions  were  therefore  involuntary.  Record  1  was  made  when  the 
muscle  was  fresh;  record  2  immediately  after  three  and  one-half  hours  had 
been  spent  in  the  oral  examination  of  students;  record  3  two  hours  after 
the  completion  of  the  examination.     (From  Mosso's  "Fatigue.") 

muscles  are  exhausted,  the  utmost  expenditure  of  will  power 
does  not  enable  them  to  contract  further.  A  very  long  inter- 
val— two  hours — is  needed  for  the  muscle  to  make  a  complete 
recovery. 


3.    ANOTHER    FACTOR    IN    FATIGUE:    CONSUMPTION  OF 
ENERGY-YIELDING  SUBSTANCE 

So  long  an  interval  of  rest  would  evidently  not  be 
necessary  for  the  removal  of  the  poisonous  metabolic  prod- 
ucts, if  fatigue  were  due  to  the  depressant  action  of  these 

20 


THE    NATURE    OF    FATIGUE 

products  alone.  The  ergographic  record,  therefore,  throws 
light  upon  another  fundamental  factor  in  fatigue  besides  the 
accumulation  of  fatigue  products:  the  actual  consumption 
of  the  material  from  which  energy  for  contraction  is  obtained. 
At  the  termination  of  hard  muscular  work  the  muscle  con- 
tains a  lessened  supply  of  energy-yielding  material,  because 
during  contraction  the  processes  of  disassimilation  or  catab- 
olism  are  in  excess  of  those  of  assimilation  or  anabolism. 
This  fundamental  change  in  the  muscle  substance  can  be 
made  plainer  by  a  brief  consideration  of  the  chemical  proc- 
esses in  contraction. 

(a)  The  Chemistry  of  Muscular  Contraction:  How  Glycogen 
IS  Supplied  and  Consumed 

Every  voluntary  muscular  contraction  is  due  to  the 
stimulus  received  from  the  central  nervous  system  through 
the  nerves.  Of  the  nature  of  this  stimulus  little  is  known, 
and  the  nerve  elements  in  activity  and  fatigue  will  be  con- 
sidered later.  We  know  that  each  muscular  act  has  as  its 
basis  chemical  processes.  It  is  a  form  of  combustion,  as  we 
readily  recognize  by  the  greater  heat  generated  within  us  by 
any  muscular  effort.  For  combustion  there  must  be  union 
of  some  substance  with  oxygen.  The  union  may  be  slow,  as 
when  iron  rusts  or  is  slowly  oxidized,  or  fast,  as  when  wood 
or  coal  burns  with  a  flame.  In  muscular  combustion  the 
oxygen  is  supplied  by  the  blood,  the  substance  with  which  it 
combines  being  the  so-called  animal  starch  of  the  muscles, 
called  glycogen. 

Let  us,  then,  first  consider  how  the  organism  is  supplied 
with  these  two  essential  factors  for  muscular  action,  glycogen 
and  oxygen. 

Glycogen  is  one  of  the  stored  materials  of  the  muscle, 
a  compound  of  carbon,  hydrogen,  and  oxygen;  and  muscular 
tissue  has  the  power  of  forming  this  glycogen  from  the  sugar 
or  dextrose  brought  to  it  by  the  blood.  Dextrose  is  the  form 
of  sugar  in  which  our  carbohydrate  foods  (starches,  sugars, 
etc.,  the  bulk  of  our  usual  diet)  are  eventually  absorbed  into 

21 


FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 

the  blood  and  carried  by  the  blood  to  the  muscular  tissues, 
there  to  be  transformed  into  glycogen.  The  stored  glycogen 
of  the  muscles  keeps  uniting  chemically  with  the  oxygen  of  the 
blood.  The  glycogen  is  broken  down  into  a  simpler  chemical 
form,  giving  off  the  gas  carbon  dioxide  and  other  acid  wastes, 
and  releasing  heat  and  mechanical  energy  in  the  process. 

With  the  released  energy,  contraction  of  the  muscle 
takes  place  and  hence  ultimately  the  industrial  labor  which 
is  our  special  theme.  The  heat  contributes  to  our  body 
temperature.  The  chemical  wastes,  as  we  have  seen,  poison 
the  whole  organism  unless  prevented  from  accumulating 
unduly,  and  go  to  constitute  what  we  know  as  fatigue. 

But,  as  we  saw  above  in  considering  the  ergograph, 
there  is  another  fundamental  factor  in  fatigue  which  must  be 
taken  into  account  here:  a  consumption  of  energy-yielding 
material  of  the  muscle  itself.  This  takes  place  in  the  follow- 
ing manner: 

Glycogen  is,  as  it  were,  stored  for  use.  It  is  always 
being  replenished,  always  being  depleted.  The  metabolic 
wastes,  produced  when  glycogen  is  broken  down  into  simpler 
chemical  form,  are  constantly  thrown  off;  the  potential  stuff 
brought  by  the  blood  is  constantly  being  seized  and  built  up 
again  into  living  tissue.  But  when  the  muscle  is  active  and 
contracts  energetically,  there  is  a  run  upon  our  glycogen.  It 
is  used  up  faster  than  it  is  built  in  muscle.  The  glycogen  is 
spent  so  rapidly  that  there  is  not  time  for  the  bloodstream  to 
bring  back  to  the  tissue  the  potential  material  for  its  repair. 
Glycogen  may  even  be  entirely  consumed  and  disappear  from 
the  muscle. 

But  there  is  another  organ  of  the  body  which  acts  further 
as  a  storehouse  for  glycogen.  This  is  the  liver,  whose  cells 
are  so  constructed  that  they  too  convert  the  dextrose  or  sugar 
in  the  blood  into  glycogen  and  retain  it,  until  the  store  in  the 
muscles  is  so  far  depleted  that  it  must  be  replenished.  If  it 
were  not  for  the  stored  glycogen  of  the  liver  which  is  sup- 
plied to  the  muscles  at  their  need,  starvation  would  more 
quickly  end  in  death. 

22 


THE    NATURE    OF    FATIGUE 

Even  this  provision  of  stored  glycogen,  however,  does 
not  suffice  after  prolonged  and  severe  work  to  supply  oxi- 
dizable  material  for  muscular  activity.  After  excessive  labor 
the  entire  store  of  glycogen  in  the  liver  as  well  as  in  the 
muscle  may  be  practically  used  up.  Thus  we  have  reached 
the  other  fundamental  factor  in  fatigue, — the  consumption 
of  the  energy-yielding  substance  itself.  Not  only  does  tissue 
manufacture  poison  for  itself  in  its  very  act  of  living,  casting 
off  chemical  wastes  into  the  circling  bloodstream;  not  only 
are  these  wastes  poured  into  the  blood  faster  with  increased 
exertion,  clogging  the  muscle  more  and  more  with  its  own 
noxious  products;  but  finally,  there  is  a  depletion  of  the  very 
material  from  which  energy  is  obtained.  The  catabolic  proc- 
ess is  in  excess  of  the  anabolic.  In  exhaustion,  the  organ- 
ism is  forced  literally  to  "use  itself  up." 

We  shall  see  later  how  destructive  to  health  this  phenom- 
enon of  exhaustion  is,  to  which  nervous  as  well  as  muscular 
tissue  is  subject;  how  long  it  takes  to  make  good  such  losses; 
how  exhaustion,  indeed,  taps  the  very  source  of  our  energies. 

(b)  How  Oxygen  is  Supplied  for  Muscular  Contraction 
Hitherto  in  this  discussion  we  have  referred  constantly 
to  the  chemical  reaction  between  glycogen  and  oxygen,  and 
the  results  obtained  when  glycogen  is  thus  broken  down  by 
oxygen.  It  remains  now  to  trace  how  at  every  breath  we 
draw,  oxygen  is  supplied  for  our  internal  combustion  of 
glycogen;  how  at  every  exhalation  we  breathe  out  the  gas 
carbon  dioxide — product  of  muscular  action.  The  pathway 
for  these  gases  is  the  blood. 

When  oxygen  is  breathed  into  the  air  sacs  of  the  lungs, 
it  comes  into  contact  with  the  smallest  blood  vessels  of  the 
body,  the  capillaries.  The  blood  in  these  thin-walled  capil- 
laries is  separated  from  the  oxygen  in  the  air  sacs  only  by 
moist  and  permeable  membranes.  By  diffusion,  the  oxygen 
passes  through  these  moist  membranes  and  combines  chem- 
ically with  the  haemoglobin  or  red  coloring  matter  of  the  red 
corpuscles  in  the  capillaries.     These  tiny  blood  vessels,  now 

23 


FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 

oxygen  bearers,  penetrate  in  a  fine  network  to  every  tissue 
and  organ  in  the  body.  As  soon  as  the  blood  reaches  the 
muscles,  the  loose  chemical  union  of  the  haemoglobin  and 
oxygen  is  again  broken  down,  the  oxygen  combining  with 
the  glycogen  of  the  muscle  tissue,  setting  free  energy,  as  we 
have  seen,  and  evolving  waste  products.  For,  as  the  oxygen 
streams  out  to  combine  with  the  glycogen,  there  streams  back 
in  the  opposite  direction  the  gas  carbon  dioxide,  thrown  off 
in  the  chemical  process. 

"There  is  an  upward   rush  from   the  lifeless  to  the 
living;  a  downward  rush  from  the  living  to  the  dead." 

The  lifeless  carbon  dioxide  in  its  turn  combines  with  the 
blood,  which  has  given  its  oxygen  to  the  tissue;  and  in  the 
intricate  flow  of  our  vascular  system,  carbon  dioxide  is  carried 
back  by  the  blood  to  the  lungs  and  thence  expired.  We  may 
get  some  notion  of  the  combustion  or  chemical  process  carried 
on  within  our  muscles  by  the  fact  that  at  every  breath  air 
loses  about  5  per  cent  of  its  oxygen  and  increases  in  carbon 
dioxide  a  hundred  fold.* 

O  N         CO, 

Inspired  air  contains 20.96        79.00        0.04 

Expired  air  contains 16.40        79.19        4.41 

Loss 4.56  .19        4.37  Gain 

Moreover,  it  has  been  proved  that  after  heavy  muscular 
work,  an  animal  gives  off  even  larger  proportions  of  carbon 
dioxide  in  its  expired  air.  The  physiologists  Voit  and  Petten- 
kofer  showed  as  early  as  1866,  that  during  a  day  in  which 
much  muscular  work  was  done,  a  man  expired  almost  twice 
as  much  carbon  dioxide  as  during  a  resting  day.  During 
activity  the  internal  combustion  is  more  active,  glycogen  is 
being  broken  down  more  rapidly,  more  wastes  are  being 
thrown  into  the  blood,  more  carbon  dioxide  is  evolved.  The 
wastes  indeed  accumulate  more  rapidly  than  they  can  be 
carried  off,  and  hence,  as  we  have  seen,  after  excessive  exer- 

*  Notter,  J.  Lane,  and  Firth,  R.  H.:  The  Theory  and  Practice  of 
Hygiene,  p.  151.     Third  Edition.     London,  J.  V.  A.  Churchill.  1908. 

24 


THE    NATURE    OF    FATIGUE 

tion,  the  metabolic  equilibrium  is  destroyed.  But  during 
rest  at  night  the  processes  of  repair  are  again  in  the  ascen- 
dant. If  sufficient  rest  is  not  allowed  between  working  days, 
obviously  a  physiological  deficit  must  result. 

This  is  the  essential  injury  of  consecutive  days,  weeks, 
and  months  of  overtime  work,  which  we  shall  find  common 
to  many  branches  of  industry, — that  the  normal  season  of 
tissue  repair,  between  working  days,  is  cut  down  at  the  very 
time  when  the  severest  demands  are  being  made  upon  the 
human  organism. 

4.    THE  NATURE  OF  THE  FATIGUE  PRODUCTS 

The  production  of  carbon  dioxide  has  been  called  the 
most  significant  change  in  the  muscle  during  contraction. 
The  nature  of  other  toxic  products  of  muscular  action  is 
shown  by  laboratory  examination.  Fatigued  muscle  is 
shown  by  litmus  paper  to  be  acid  in  reaction.  A  wellknown 
experiment  illustrates  the  acidity  of  fatigued  muscle  by  the 
use  of  acid  fuchsin.  This  stain  is  injected  under  the  skin  of  a 
frog.  It  is  absorbed  and  distributed  in  the  body  without 
injuring  the  tissues.  As  long  as  the  body  remains  at  rest, 
the  solution  is  colorless;  but  if  one  of  the  legs  is  electrically 
stimulated  the  muscles  take  on  a  red  color,  showing  that  an 
acid  is  produced  locally. 

"  It  is  now  customary,"  writes  Professor  Lee,  "to  recog- 
nize three  distinct  metabolic  products  as  fatiguing,  namely — 
sarcolactic  acid,  monopotassium  phosphate  and  carbon  di- 
oxide, all  of  which  are  acid  in  reaction."* 

Within  the  last  few  years  the  German  scientist,  W. 
Weichardt,  has  published  special  studies  of  chemical  fatigue 

*0p.  cit.,  Harvey  Lectures,  1905-06,  p.  183.  See  also  by  the  same 
author:  Cause  of  theTreppe.  Amer.  Jour,  of  Physiology,  Vol.  XVHI,  No. 
HI,  p.  267  (April  1,  1907).  The  Action  of  Norma!  Fatigue  Substances  on 
Muscle.  Ibid.,  Vol.  XX,  No.  I,  p.  170  (Oct.  1.  1907).  Pseudo-Fatigue  of 
the  Spinal  Cord.  Ibid.,  Vol.  XXIV,  No.  IV,  p.  384  Ouly  1,  1909).  Physical 
Exercise  from  the  Standpoint  of  Physiology.  Science,  N.  S.,  Vol.  XXIX, 
No.  744,  p.  521  (Apr.  2,  1909).  The  Nature  of  Fatigue.  Popular  Science 
Monthly.  Feb.,  1910,  p.  182. 

25 


FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 

substances.  In  1904  Weichardt  claimed  to  have  isolated 
from  fatigued  muscles  a  specific  toxin  of  fatigue,  entirely 
analogous  to  other  bacterial  toxins,  such  as  that  of  diphtheria 
or  tetanus.*  He  asserts  that  if  this  toxin  obtained  from  the 
extract  of  fatigued  muscles  is  injected  into  animals,  it  pro- 
duces all  the  symptoms  of  fatigue.  When  given  in  large 
doses  it  is  said  even  to  cause  death.  In  human  beings  the 
production  of  fatigue  toxin  is  supposed  to  take  place  with 
ordinary  physiological  fatigue. 

Weichardt  even  lays  claim  to  having  obtained  a  true 
anti-toxin  of  fatigue.  He  asserts  that  when  small  doses  of 
the  toxin  are  administered  to  animals,  a  specific  anti-toxin  is 
produced  in  the  blood,  under  the  influence  of  which  the  mus- 
cles of  the  animals  experimented  upon  display  far  less  fatigue 
than  under  ordinary  conditions.  Their  endurance  capacity 
is  said  to  be  largely  increased  by  injection  of  the  anti-toxin. 
When  corresponding  amounts  of  the  anti-toxin  were  given 
with  doses  of  toxin,  the  paralyzing  effects  of  the  latter  were 
said  to  be  counteracted.  ^ 

These  later  theories  and  experiments,  verging  on  the 
fantastic,  have  not  been  cordially  accepted  by  the  scientific 
world.  In  the  eight  years  which  have  elapsed  since  Weich- 
ardt's  discovery  was  announced,  it  has  been  confirmed  by 
no  other  eminent  investigator.  At  present,  his  theories  of 
fatigue  toxin  and  anti-toxin  must  still  be  regarded  as  uncor- 
roborated. 

Moreover,  even  if  further  scientific  investigation  should 
sustain  Weichardt's  assertions,  they  would  be  of  theoretic  not 
practical  interest  and  value.  The  injection  of  an  anti-toxin 
of  fatigue  might  possibly  be  resorted  to  in  athletic  endurance 
tests  and  tours  de  force,  such  as  six-day  bicycle  races.     Ob- 

*  Weichardt,  W.:  Uber  Ermiidungstoxine  und  deren  Antitoxine. 
Munchenermedizinische  Wochenschrift,  1904,  51.  Jahrgang,  No.  1,  pp.  12-13. 

Ibid..  1904.     No.  48,  pp.  2121-2126. 

Ibid.,  1905.     No.  26.  pp.  1234-1236. 

Ibid.,  1906.     No.  1,  pp.  7-10. 

Ibid.,  1906.    No.  35,  pp.  1701-1702. 

Vierteljahresschrift  fiirofTentliche  Gesundheitspflege.  XXIX.  1907. 
Ermiidungs-  u.  Ubermiidungsmassmethoden. 

26 


THE    NATURE    OF    FATIGUE 

viously  no  such  artificial  stimulus  could  be  of  any  concern 
in  the  daily  regimen  of  industry  with  which  we  are  concerned. 
A  glimpse  at  theories  of  fatigue  toxin  and  anti-toxin  is 
of  interest  to  us  chiefly  as  additional  evidence  of  the  gravity 
and  the  scientific  nature  of  our  problem.  Overstrain  in 
industry  is  obviously  no  invention  of  sentiment  or  fiction 
when  the  chemical  nature  of  fatigue  and  its  complex  relations 
with  life  are  realized.  The  more  we  learn  of  the  scientific 
nature  of  fatigue,  the  more  it  invites  us  to  utilize  such  knowl- 
edge for  the  improvement  of  working  conditions. 


5.  THE  NATURE  OF  NERVOUS  FATIGUE 

Thus  far  we  have  confined  ourselves  to  a  consideration 
of  the  main  underlying  causes  of  fatigue  in  the  breakdown  of 
normal  metabolism,  and  we  have  glanced  at  the  manifesta- 
tions of  muscular  fatigue.  We  must  proceed  now  to  other 
forms  of  fatigue,  nervous  and  psychic. 

Such  is  the  oneness  of  life,  the  controlling  unity  of  the 
living  body,  that  we  cannot  practically  estimate  any  one 
form  of  fatigue  separately;  we  cannot  set  definite  limits 
where  nervous  fatigue  ends  and  muscular  fatigue  begins,  or 
vice  versa.  They  are  inevitably  bound  up  together,  since 
every  voluntary  muscular  act  is  due  to  the  stimulus  received 
through  the  nerves  from  the  central  nervous  system.  Of  the 
nature  of  the  nerve  impulse  or  of  the  energy  generated  in  the 
centers,  little  is  agreed  upon,  excepting  that  some  form  of 
electric  activity  is  involved. 

But  though  the  origin  of  nerve  impulses  be  still  unknown, 
shrouded  in  the  mystery  of  life  itself,  it  is  undoubted  that 
our  levels  of  nervous  endurance  and  resistance  may  be  per- 
manently lowered  by  excessive  pressure  upon  them.  Further, 
we  know  that  nervous  energy  is  not  only  the  stimulus  of 
muscular  action,  but  the  controller  of  all  our  functions;  the 
"very  pulse  of  the  machine."  Hence  nervous  fatigue  and 
exhaustion  is  the  most  destructive  because  the  most  inclusive 
form  of  fatigue. 

27 


FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 

•  We  have  seen  that  toxic  products  are  thrown  off  by  the 
muscles  and  are  carried  in  the  blood.  When  fatigued  blood 
becomes  laden  with  these  substances  they  affect  other  muscles 
through  which  the  blood  circulates.  Thus,  after  an  exhaust- 
ing walk,  as  Mosso  explains,  the  muscles  of  the  arms  as  well 
as  of  the  legs  are  indisposed  to  further  great  exertion.  Mag- 
giora,  a  student  and  follower  of  Mosso,  demonstrated  this 
fact  with  the  ergograph.     He  says: 

"After  a  fatiguing  day's  march,  certain  soldiers'  hand 
tracings  showed  a  notable  diminution  of  energy  even  after 
the  night's  rest,  being  very  low  at  7  a.m.,  less  so  at  9  and  11 
o'clock,  but  rising  to  normal  energy  only  by  3  p.  m."* 

Now,  just  as  the  metabolic  poisons  created  in  one  set  of 
muscles  are  carried  by  the  blood,  and  act  upon  other  muscles, 
so  they  act  also  upon  our  nervous  system — upon  nerve  end- 
ings in  muscle  and  upon  central  nerve  cells.  Further,  it  is 
agreed  that  there  is  a  metabolism  of  the  nervous  tissue  itself 
similar  to  that  of  muscle  tissue,  a  similar  building  up  and 
breaking  down  of  energy-yielding  material.  Hence  fatigue 
of  the  nervous  system  is  ascribed  to  the  same  double  origin 
as  muscle  fatigue:  accumulation  of  toxic  waste  products, 
and  consumption  of  substances  essential  for  activity. f 

(a)  The  Nervous  System,  Central  and  Peripheral 
The  nervous  system  is  composed  of  the  central  nervous 
system, — the  brain  and  spinal  cord ;  and  the  peripheral  system, 
— nerve  ganglia  and  nerve  fibers  arising  from  the  centers. 
When  a  number  of  nerve  fibers  are  bound  together  in  a 
bundle  or  trunk,  we  have  the  plainly  visible  whitish  nerves. 
These  are  distributed  to  all  parts  of  the  body.  Every  organ 
and  tissue  has  its  own  supply  of  nerves  connecting  it  with  the 
brain  or  spinal  cord. 

*  Archiv  fiir  Anatomic  u.  Physiologic,  1890,  p.  191.  Physiologische 
Abthcilung.     Maggiora,  Dr.  Arnaldo:  Uber  die  Gesetze  dcr  Ermiidung. 

t  Howell,  Wm.  H.:  Textbook  of  Physiology,  p.  110.  Philadelphia  and 
London,  W.  B.  Saunders  Co.,  1908. 

28 


THE    NATURE    OF    FATIGUE 

Nerve  fibers  are  divided  into  two  great  groups:  the 
efferent  fibers,  which  carry  impulses  out  from  the  nervous 
system  to  the  peripheral  tissues  (skin,  muscles,  etc.),  and 
the  afferent  fibers,  which  carry  impulses  inward  from  the 
peripheral  tissues  to  the  nerve  centers. 

Some  of  the  efferent  fibers,  carrying  impulses  outward 
from  the  centers,  are  also  called  motor  nerve  fibers.  If  these 
fibers  end  in  muscles,  the  effect  of  their  impulses  is  to  produce 
muscular  contraction.  If  they  end  in  glands,  they  cause  a 
secretion,  depending  on  the  kind  of  tissue  with  which  the 
nerve  fiber  is  connected.  Some  afferent  fibers,  bearing  im- 
pulses inward  to  the  nerve  centers,  are  also  called  sensory 
fibers,  because  in  many  instances  these  impulses  reach  the 
brain  and  give  rise  to  sensations  of  various  kinds.  Often, 
however,  these  inward  carried  impulses  do  not  reach  the 
brain  in  consciousness,  but  are  manifested  as  reflex  actions, 
such  as  the  movements  of  the  heart,  intestines,  etc.  These 
reflex  activities  constitute  a  fundamental  part  of  our  nervous 
system,  but  we  may  for  the  time  being  leave  them  out  of 
account. 

(b)  The  Location  of  Nervous  Fatigue 
The  question  at  once  arises  how  our  intricate  nervous 
system  succumbs  to  fatigue  and  how  such  fatigue  is  mani- 
fested. It  obviously  cannot  easily  be  measured  and  regis- 
tered, like  muscular  fatigue,  upon  a  revolving  drum.  Labor- 
atory study  of  nervous  fatigue  has  been  beset  with  enormous 
difficulties  and  the  unsolved  problems  are  many.  There  is 
profound  disagreement  among  scientists  as  to  what  part  of 
the  nervous  system  first  succumbs  after  excessive  exertions. 
We  know  that  the  nerve  fibers  themselves — carriers 
of  energy — are  apparently  not  readily  subject  to  fatigue. 
That  is,  they  can  conduct  impulses  to  the  peripheral  tissues 
almost  indefinitely.  Varied  experiments  have  proved  that 
their  normal  functional  activity  may  be  carried  on  to  an  al- 
most indefinite  extent  without  causing  fatigue.  In  these 
experiments  the  underlying  idea  has  been  to  stimulate  the 

29 


FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 

nerve  continuously,  but  to  interpose  a  block  somewhere 
along  the  course  of  the  nerve,  so  that  the  impulses  shall  not 
be  conducted  to  the  muscle  experimented  upon.  This  is 
obviously  necessary  because  otherwise  the  muscle  would  be- 
come fatigued,  and  there  would  be  no  way  to  distinguish 
between  fatigue  of  the  muscle  or  of  the  nerve  fiber.  By  the 
use  of  curare,  a  South  American  arrow  poison,  the  passage 
of  the  electric  stimulus  to  the  muscle  is  blocked,  the  poison 
affecting  the  terminations  of  the  nerves,  or  motor  end-plates, 
as  they  are  called,  and  preventing  their  transmission  of 
impulses  to  the  muscles.  By  the  use  of  curare,  then,  the 
sciatic  nerve  has  been  continuously  stimulated  for  as  long  as 
ten  hours.*  When  the  effects  of  curare  were  removed  (which 
can  be  accomplished  within  a  few  minutes)  the  nerve  was 
found  to  be  still  conducting,  the  muscle  responding.  Thus, 
nerve  fibers  are  practically  unfatiguable. 

It  has  long  been  supposed  that  while  nerve  fiber  is  proved 
highly  resistant,  the  central  portion  of  the  nervous  system  is 
extremely  susceptible  to  fatigue.  It  has  been  thought  that 
after  prolonged  muscular  activity  the  brain  and  spinal  cord 
tire  first,  before  the  muscle.  Thus,  after  a  finger  muscle  has 
become  so  fatigued  by  the  ergograph  that  it  can  no  longer 
voluntarily  lift  a  given  weight,  it  can  be  made  to  do  so  by 
electric  stimulation.  The  muscular  mechanism  is  apparently 
still  in  working  order,  at  least  for  a  space  of  time.  After  a 
longer  or  shorter  period,  even  the  given  electric  stimulus 
cannot  cause  the  muscle  to  contract,  and  the  individual's 
curve  of  fatigue  drops  after  electric  stimulation  in  very  much 
the  same  way  that  it  does  in  voluntary  contraction.  Ap- 
parently the  muscle  has  not  entirely  lost  its  power  of  contrac- 
tion when  it  can  no  longer  voluntarily  contract.  Accord- 
ing to  this  theory,  what  seems  to  be  muscular  fatigue  is  in 
reality  nervous  fatigue,  fatigue  of  some  part  of  our  nervous 
system. 

Laboratory  experiments  upon  animals  show  that  after 
prolonged    activity    demonstrable    histologic   changes    take 

*  Howell,  Wm.  H.,   op.  cit.,  p.  111. 
30 


THE    NATURE    OF    FATIGUE 

place  in  the  nerve  cells  of  the  brain  and  spinal  cord.*  Mosso 
drew  attention  to  the  marked  modifications  in  the  brains  of 
exhausted  birds.  He  gives  a  delightful  account  of  his  ex- 
perimental dove  cote  and  of  his  fatigue  tests  upon  military 
carrier  pigeons  provided  by  the  Italian  Ministry  of  War. 
He  studied  also  the  changes  and  characteristics  in  wearied 
migrating  birds,  such  as  the  quail  which  arrive  each  year  in 
great  numbers  from  Africa  upon  Italian  shores.  Exhausted 
by  their  journey,  hundreds  are  killed,  dashing  themselves 
in  plain  daylight  against  walls  and  houses.  Either  they 
are  too  much  exhausted  to  see  these  bright  objects  which 
seem  to  fascinate  them  from  afar,  or  their  exhaustion  is 
too  great  to  allow  them  to  raise  themselves  even  one  extra 
yard  in  their  rapid  flight.  Mosso  ascribed  their  impaired 
vision  to  the  cerebral  anaemia  found  in  birds  exhausted  by 
long  flights.  Later  in  his  book  he  shows  how  profoundly  a 
diminished  circulation  of  the  blood  affects  the  functions  of 
nervous  tissue  in  man.  A  few  seconds'  pressure  upon  the 
eyelid,  lessening  the  blood  supply,  is  enough  to  distort  vision, 
and  a  diminution  of  the  brain's  blood  supply  is  followed  by 
loss  of  consciousness  after  six  or  seven  seconds. f 

Other  more  recent  experiments  throw  some  measure  of 
doubt  upon  these  demonstrations  of  fatigue  in  the  central  ner- 
vous system.  Some  investigators  suggest  that  the  first  part  of 
our  neuro-muscular  mechanism  to  tire  after  sustained  contrac- 
tion is  the  nerve-ending  in  the  muscle,  or  motor  end-plate. J 

♦Hodge,  C.  F.:  /imer.  Jour,  of  Psychology,  1887-1888,  Vol.  I,  p. 
479;     1889,  Vol.  II,  p.  376.   Jour,  of  Morphology,  1892,  Vol.  VII,  p.  95. 

Vas,  Fr.:    Archiv  fiir  mikroskopische  Anatomic,  1892,  Vol.  XL,  p.  375. 

Mann,  Gustav:  Jour,  of  Anatomy  &  Physiology,  1894,  Vol.  XXIX, p.  100. 

Lugaro,  E.:   LoSperimentale,  Sezione  biologica,  1895,  Vol.  XLIX,  p.  159. 

Eve,  F.  C:   Jour,  of  Physiology,  1896,  Vol.  XX,  p.  334. 

t  Mosso,  Angelo:  La  Fatica.  Milano,  1891.  English  translation, 
pp.  1-29,  72  and  73.     New  York,  Putnam,  1904. 

X  Miiller,  G.  E.:  Zeitschrift  fiir  Psychologic  und  Physiologic  der 
Sinnesorgane,  1893,  Vol.  IV,  p.  122. 

Miiller,  Robert:   Wundt's  Philosop.  Studien,  1901,  Vol.  XVII,  p.  1. 

Hough,  Theodore:   Amer.   Jour,  of  Physiology,  1901,  Vol.  V,  p.  240. 

Storey,  Thomas  A.:   Amer.  Jour,  of  Physiology,  1903,  Vol.  VI 1 1,  p.  355. 

Joteyko,  Mile.  J.:  Fatigue.  Richet's  Diet,  de  Physiologic.  Paris, 
1904,  Vol.  VI,  p.  29. 

Woodworth,  R.  S.:  N.  Y.  University  Bulletin  of  the  Medical  Sciences, 
1901,  Vol.  I,  p.  133. 

31 


FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 

Scientists  themselves  disagree  as  to  the  precise  nature 
and  localization  of  nervous  fatigue.  Little  is  known  as  to 
the  production  of  fatigue  substances  by  the  central  system. 
It  may  even  be  that  central  nerve  cells  are  less  readily  sus- 
ceptible to  fatigue  than  has  been  supposed  and  that  they 
succumb  only  to  a  really  high  degree  of  exertion.  Yet  it 
should  be  clearly  understood  that  the  uncertainty  of  scientists 
as  to  the  precise  localization  of  nervous  fatigue  does  not  touch 
the  acknowledged  fatiguability  of  some  portion,  not  yet 
completely  verified,  of  our  nervous  endowment.  Thus 
Professor  Frederic  S.  Lee,  one  of  the  physiologists  who  in- 
clines most  strongly  to  the  belief  that  central  cells  are  more 
resistant  than  has  been  supposed,  specifically  states  that 
"nervous  fatigue  is  an  undoubted  fact,"*  and  that,  "we  can- 
not deny  fatigue  to  psychic  centers,"  though  "the  intimate 
relations  of  central  and  peripheral  fatigue  are  much  in  need 
of  exact  experimental  study."! 

Moreover,  it  is  not  essential  to  our  present  inquiry  to 
know  whether  muscle  or  nerve  substances  tire  first,  or  exactly 
what  part  of  our  nervous  system  is  first  affected.  These  still 
unsolved  problems  may  not  go  unmentioned  in  any  account 
of  the  study  of  fatigue.  They  are  the  unanswered  questions 
fronting  the  scientist,  for  whom, the  "humblest  catabolic 
product"  must  be  a  challenge,  until  he  has  plucked  out  the 
mystery  of  its  composition  and  effect.  For  our  purposes  it 
is  enough  to  realize  that  nervous  fatigue,  be  it  central  or 
peripheral,  exists,  a  relentless  fact,  reacting  inexorably  upon 
our  total  health  and  life.  It  is  the  form  of  fatigue  most 
fraught  with  possibilities  of  mischief.  For  when  fatigue 
affects  the  nervous  system,  it  attacks  what  has  been  called 
the  "administrative  instrument  of  the  individual,"  which 
"directs,  controls  and  harmonizes  the  work  of  the  parts  of 
the  organic  machine  and  gives  unity  to  the  whole." 

When  that  administrative  instrument  is  impaired  by 
overwork  and  exhaustion,  formidable  forms  of  disease  appear 

*0p.  cit..  Science.  N.  S.,  Vol.  XXIX,  No.  744,  p.  525. 
t  Op.  cit..  Harvey  Lectures,  1905-06.  p.  180. 

32 


THE    NATURE    OF    FATIGUE 

which  we  shall  subsequently  view  so  far  as  they  may  be  traced 
to  industrial  causes.  But  first  we  must  proceed  to  examine 
how  nervous  fatigue  is  manifested  in  the  laboratory. 

6.    THE  RISE  AND  FALL  OF  WORKING  CAPACITY 

(a)   Work  Continued  Under  Fatigue  Costs  More  Effort 

One  of  the  most  valuable  contributions  of  the  Turin 
school  was  in  proving  graphically  the  nervous  strain  in  over- 
work. 

it  is  a  fact  familiar  to  every  one  that  work  done  after 
fatigue  has  set  in  requires  much  greater  expenditure  of  ner- 
vous energy  than  work  done  before  fatigue.  This  is  illus- 
trated by  the  simple  act  of  holding  up  a  weight  in  out- 
stretched arms  after  they  have  become  tired.  It  is  shown  in 
the  so-called  tension  of  the  will  needed  to  complete  a  difficult 
task,  the  unmistakable  sense  of  effort  in  "keeping-up." 

Mosso  showed  that  a  much  stronger  electric  stimulus  is 
required  to  make  a  wearied  muscle  contract  than  one  which 
is  rested.  He  devised  an  apparatus,  the  ponometer,  which 
records  the  curve  of  nervous  effort  required  to  accomplish 
muscular  action  as  fatigue  increases.  He  showed  that  the 
nerve  centers  are  compelled  to  supply  an  ever  stronger 
stimulus  to  fatigued  muscles.  As  the  muscle  tires  and  ac- 
complishes less  work,  more  and  more  energy  must  be  supplied 
for  contraction.  In  the  language  of  the  laboratory,  the 
ponometric  curve  follows  a  course  which  is  the  inverse  of  the 
ergographic  curve;  or,  more  intelligibly  put,  effort  increases 
with  fatigue. 

In  another  way,  and  as  impressively,  Maggiora  showed 
how  much  greater  effort  is  needed  to  make  wearied  than  fresh 
muscles  work.  He  found  that  after  his  finger  muscles  were 
exhausted  by  a  series  of  contractions  in  the  ergograph,  he  had 
to  allow  a  two-hour  rest  before  they  were  completely  rested. 
If  he  diminished  this  period,  and  allowed  only  one  and  one- 
half  hour's  rest,  the  muscle  was  insufficiently  restored  and 
could  not  do  as  much  work  as  when  thoroughly  rested. 
3  .33 


FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 

By  analogy  it  might  be  supposed  that  if  the  work  were 
lessened,  the  period  of  rest  might  be  reduced  in  the  same  pro- 
portion; that  if  Maggiora  cut  in  half  the  work  which  re- 
quired two  hours'  rest,  he  would  need  only  one  hour  to  recover 
entirely  from  a  shorter  series  of  contractions.  But  experi- 
ment proved,  surprisingly,  that  even  less  rest  was  needed  after 
the  shorter  period  of  work.  If  work  is  reduced  by  one-half, 
the  period  of  necessary  rest  can  actually  be  reduced  half 
or  three-quarters  as  much  again.  Thus,  if  30  contractions 
exhaust  the  finger  muscle  so  that  it  needs  two  hours'  rest, 
15  contractions  require  not  one  hour  but  only  a  half-hour 
for  recuperation.  In  other  words,  the  expenditure  of  energy 
in  the  last  15  contractions,  after  fatigue  has  set  in,  is 
much  greater  than  the  energy  expended  in  the  first  15 
contractions,  since  the  last  set  of  contractions  exhaust  the  or- 
ganism much  more  than  the  first  set. 

Moreover,  the  tracings  of  work  done  in  the  second  set  of 
contractions  are  much  smaller  than  the  first  tracings;  the 
output  falls  off,  as  we  say  of  industrial  work.  Hence  strain, 
or  work  done  after  fatigue  has  set  in,  not  only  costs  more 
effort  but  accomplishes  less.  The  last  15  contractions  are 
decidedly  smaller,  while  the  effort  to  keep  up  costs  the  organ- 
ism four  times  as  long  a  rest  for  recuperation. 

The  ergographic  record  shows  also  the  remarkable  re- 
cuperative effect  of  rest  taken  at  the  critical  moment  before 
exhaustion  is  reached.  For  if  work  is  stopped  after  the  first 
set  of  contractions,  before  the  muscle  is  completely  exhausted, 
it  accomplishes  just  twice  the  amount  of  work  which  was 
produced  when  the  muscle  was  pushed  to  the  actual  point  of 
exhaustion.     As  Mosso  puts  it:* 

"Our  body  is  not  constructed  like  a  locomotive  which 
consumes  the  same  quantity  of  coal  for  every  kilogrammetre 
of  work.     When  the  body  is  fatigued,  even  a  small  amount  of 

work  produces  disastrous  effects The  workman 

that  persists  in  his  task  when  he  is  already  fatigued  not  only 
produces  less  effective  work,  but  receives  greater  injury  to  his 
organism." 

*  Op.  cit.,  English  translation,  pp.  152  and  157. 

1  34 


THE    NATURE    OF    FATIGUE 

(b)  The  Nature  of  Training 
Professor  Treves  at  Turin,  a  follower  of  Mosso,  throws 
further  light  upon  the  injuries  due  to  an  excessive  run  upon 
nervous  energy.  It  is  a  wellknown  fact  that  in  muscular 
exertion  there  is  a  marked  gain  in  efficiency  during  the  first 
period  of  work.  In  the  muscular  contractions  of  men  as 
well  as  of  animals,  the  curve  of  fatigue  rises  before  it  begins 
to  fall.  That  is,  before  fatigue  begins  to  diminish  the  muscle's 
power  of  contracting,  there  is  a  period  during  which  the  muscle 
gains  strength  at  every  effort  and  is  able  to  raise  the  weight 
to  a  higher  and  higher  level.  This  upward  progression  of 
the  curve  is  known  to  physiologists  as  the  staircase,  or 


Fig.  6 

Series  of  contractions  of  a  frog's  sartorius  muscle,  excised  and  stimu- 
lated at  intervals  of  two  and  one  half  seconds.  Each  successive  vertical 
line  is  the  record  of  a  single  contraction,  The  contractions  at  first  increase 
in  extent,  this  stage  constituting  the  treppe,  and  later  decrease,  this  stage 
constituting  fatigue. 


"treppe."  The  treppe  means  that,  in  its  early  stages,  the 
working  power  of  muscle  is  augmented.  Its  physiological 
irritability,  or  power  of  responding  to  a  stimulus,  increases, 
so  that  the  same  stimulus  results  in  greater  contractions. 
After  a  certain  period  the  treppe  is  at  its  height,  and  contrac- 
tion continues  at  its  maximum  until  the  development  of 
fatigue  causes  it  to  diminish  and  fail. 

In  the  study  of  isolated  muscle  these  three  general 
though  not  sharply  defined  stages  of  work  may  be  observed. 
First,  the  treppe,  when  working  power  is  on  the  increase 
and  excitability  is  growing;  second,  the  period  when  the 
muscle  is  in  its  best  working  condition,  its  excitability 
highest;   and  third,  the  period  when  fatigue  products  clog 

35 


FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 

the  muscle  more  and  more  until  contraction  is  finally  forced 
to  cease. 

These  three  general  stages  of  work,  graphically  shown  in 
the  contractions  of  isolated  muscle,  are  familiar  to  every  one 
in  ordinary  experience.  It  is  an  epitome  of  life  at  which  we 
are  looking — a  picture  of  human  work  drawn  without  per- 
spective. Everyone  knows  that  in  every  long-continued 
task,  the  first  stage  is  one  of  "limbering  up";  then  we 
gradually  reach  the  plane  where  our  working  power  is  at  its 
maximum  (more  or  less  variable  to  be  sure),  until  fatigue 
inclines  it  unmistakably  downward  towards  our  minimum — 
the  zero  of  exhaustion. 

Training  is  of  inestimable  value  in  all  work,  as  well  as 
in  sports.  It  increases  our  working  capacity  by  practically 
retarding  the  onset  of  fatigue  for  a  longer  or  shorter  period. 
It  does  this  by  making  the  tissues  more  or  less  resistant  to 
those  poisons  which,  as  we  have  seen,  are  generated  in  action 
and  accumulate  unduly  in  overexertion. 

Training,  like  the  fatigue  which  it  combats,  has  a  true 
physiological  basis,  and  physiology  explains  its  virtue  as 
clearly  as  it  does  the  essential  injuries  of  fatigue.  It  is  a 
wellknown  fact  that  the  body  adapts  itself  in  extraordinary 
measure  to  even  large  quantities  of  poisonous  drugs,  when 
they  are  taken  in  gradually  increasing  doses.  So,  also,  it 
adapts  itself  to  moderate  and  increasing  amounts  of  the 
fatigue  poisons.  Now,  proper  physical  training  provides 
graded  and  increasing  exercises,  and  these  increasing  exer- 
cises, by  producing  successively  larger  amounts  of  fatigue 
poisons,  inure  the  tissues  gradually  to  such  poisonous  prod- 
ucts. This  resistance  of  tissue  to  the  depressant  action  of 
our  self-generated  poisons  is  the  most  important  element  in 
all  training  or  practice. 

The  athlete  is  enabled  by  training  to  undergo  exertions 
which  would  kill  an  ordinary  untrained  man.  Training  even 
saves  a  certain  amount  of  nervous  energy  by  a  more  ready 
coordination  of  muscles  and  by  calling  upon  a  smaller  number 
of  muscles  than  are  used  by  the  untrained  man. 

36 


THE    NATURE    OF    FATIGUE 

The  question,  however,  arises  whether  in  intensive 
regular  labor  which  makes  great  demands  on  the  organism, 
muscular  efficiency  may  not  be  bought  at  too  dear  a  cost  of 
nervous  energy.  Overtraining  is  as  unmistakable  a  phenom- 
enon as  training,  and  the  pathologic  effects  of  overtraining 
are  not  confined  to  athletes.  We  have  seen  that  the  strain 
of  the  wearied  muscle  to  keep  up,  after  fatigue  has  set  in, 
costs  more  effort  and  accomplishes  less  than  the  work  of 
unwearied  muscle;  we  have  seen  that  nervous  stimulation 
must  increase  as  working  capacity  declines.  Now  Professor 
Treves  asserts  that  when  muscles  have  attained  their  greatest 
strength,  the  nervous  energy  at  their  command  will  not  have 
grown  in  proportion.     He  says:* 

"According  to  my  experience,  it  has  not  been  found 
that  training  has  as  favorable  an  effect  upon  energy  as  upon 
muscular  strength.  .  .  .  This  fact  explains  why  mus- 
cular training  cannot  go  beyond  certain  limits  and  why 
athletes  are  often  broken  down  by  the  consequences  of  over- 
exertion. And  this  fact  teaches  also  the  practical  necessity 
of  preventing  women,  children,  and  even  adult  men  from  be- 
coming subjected  to  labor  which,  indeed,  a  gradual  muscular 
training  may  make  possible  but  at  the  price  of  an  excessive 
loss  of  nervous  energy  which  is  not  betrayed  by  any  obvious 
or  immediate  symptom,  either  objective  or  subjective. 
While  the  individual  works,  the  reserves  of  disposable  nervous 
energy  in  the  neurones  which  preside  over  muscles  diminish 
much  more  rapidly  than  the  production  of  work  which  may 
keep  to  the  normal  level.  ...  In  spite  of  this  diminu- 
tion, if  circumstances  continually  demand  intense  and  con- 
stant work,  the  stimulus  will  continue  to  be  sent  to  the  muscle 
with  the  intensity  necessary  to  accomplish  the  purpose.     .     . 

"  Here  we  have  an  arrangement  of  things  which  is  of 
inestimable  value  to  man  in  the  production  of  work;  but 
this  beneficent  provision  becomes  injurious  to  the  dynamic 
equilibrium  of  the  organism  as  soon  as  it  is  irrationally  em- 
ployed. It  is  this  that  needs  to  be  avoided  in  the  practical 
organization  of  industry." 

*  Thirteenth  International  Congress  of  Hygiene  and  Demography, 
Brussels,  1903,  Vol.  V,  Sec.  IV,  pp.  6-7.  Treves,  Dr.  Z.  (University  of 
Turin):  Dans  quelle  mesure  peut-on  par  des  methodes  physiologiques 
etudier  la  fatigue,  ses  modalites  et  ses  degres  dans  les  diverses  professions. 

37 


FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 

One  Step  more  and  we  reach  the  terminus  of  our  analysis. 
We  have  seen  that  the  curve  of  muscular  work  normally 
begins  to  decline  after  it  has  reached  its  maximum,  when  the 
fatigue  products  clog  the  muscles  excessively.  Now  it  is  a 
fact  of  vast  consequence  to  our  total  health  that  with  nervous 
fatigue  the  curve  of  work  often  does  not  descend  as  nor- 
mally it  should.  Nervous  fatigue  may  indeed  seem  to  in- 
crease our  working  capacity  temporarily.  Most  persons  are 
familiar  with  what  is  colloquially  called  "working  on  one's 
nerves,"  when  nervous  fatigue  instead  of  depressing  our 
working  capacity,  as  it  normally  should  do,  stimulates  it  to 
greater  activity.  The  temporary  increase  in  efficiency  is, 
of  course,  illusive,  though  it  may  for  a  while  lead  to  a  really 
heightened  capacity.  But  at  too  dear  a  cost!  After  a  longer 
or  shorter  period  the  false  stimulation  breaks  like  a  bubble, 
leaving  the  worker  nervously  unstrung  and  dropped  abruptly 
down  to  a  plane  of  efficiency  far  lower  than  normal  fatigue 
should  have  declined  to. 

This  form  of  nervous  over-stimulation  thus  conceals  from 
the  worker  the  oncoming  of  fatigue,  so  that  he  may  ap- 
proach the  stage  of  exhaustion  before  he  is  aware  of  the  fact. 
Consciousness  of  fatigue  does  not  at  all  keep  pace  with  the 
progressive  exhaustion  of  the  nervous  mechanism,  with  its 
apparently  heightened  irritability  or  power  of  response. 

At  this  point  the  scientific  interpretation  of  industrial 
problems  advocated  at  the  outset  of  this  study  becomes 
obvious  enough.  A  flood  of  light  is  thrown  upon  the  intri- 
cate injuries  of  speed,  overtime,  piece-work,  and  the  like 
industrial  requirements.  For  if  fatigue  be  due  to  demon- 
strated chemical  action,  removable  only  by  proper  intervals 
of  rest;  if  overfatigue  or  exhaustion  results  from  the  accumu- 
lation of  chemical  fatigue  products  and  the  destruction  of 
energy-yielding  material  in  nerve  and  muscle  tissue;  if 
strain  or  labor  carried  on  after  fatigue  has  set  in  is  proved 
more  exhausting  than  simple  work,  and  if  muscular  training 
outruns  nervous  strength, — then  the  need  for  the  shorter 

38 


THE   NATURE   OF    FATIGUE 

workday  rests  upon  a  scientific  basis.     Science  makes  out  its 
case  for  the  short  day  in  industry. 

No  one  has  expressed  this  mission  of  science  to  labor  and 
industrial  legislation  with  more  discernment  than  M.  Hector 
Denis,  of  the  Belgian  Council  of  Labor.  In  a  few  eloquent 
sentences  he  has  transformed  the  dry  business  of  law-making 
into  a  calling  of  insight  and  the  imagination.* 

"Man  has  a  new  right,"  he  says,  "the  right  to  leisure 
and  rest,  as  well  as  work.  .  .  .  The  history  of  labor 
legislation  can  be  given  in  two  words:  The  right  to  rest  is 
inherent  in  man's  physiological  structure.  From  this  follows 
the  social  need  to  do  away  with  the  exhaustion  resulting  from 
overwork  and  to  conserve  working  power,  the  most  precious 
possession  of  a  nation.  .  .  .  Science  traces  out  a  path 
for  the  modern  lawmaker.  His  difficult  but  glorious  mis- 
sion is  to  accomplish  the  normal  synthesis  of  these  two  in- 
alienable rights  springing  from  the  very  laws  of  life — the 
right  to  use  one's  working  powers  and  the  right  to  conserve 
them." 

7.    THE  GREATER  MORBIDITY  OF  WOMEN 

We  have  now  examined  some  of  the  features  of  our 
common  physiologic  life,  persistent,  though  varying  with  our 
ages,  our  states  of  health,  our  native  intensities,  our  individual 
psychological  motives  and  checks.  Before  proceeding  to 
examine  some  industrial  operations  and  their  demands  on 
human  energies,  it  remains  to  point  out  the  special  suscepti- 
bility to  fatigue  and  disease  which  distinguishes  the  female 
sex,  qua  female.  ^ 

This  physiological  differentiation  between  men  and 
women  is  important  in  this  study  because  women's  physiolog- 
ical handicaps  make  them  subject  more  than  men  to  the 
new  strain  of  industry.  If  now  the  health  of  women  in 
industry  is  shown  to  be  specially  open  to  the  inroads  of 
fatigue  and  disease  on  account  of  their  physical  make-up, 
they  clearly  need  the  protection  of  special  laws. 

*  Royaume  de  Belgique.  Conseil  Superieur  du  Travail,  6e  Session. 
1901-1902.    T.  I.,  Fasc.  II.     Le  Repos  Hebdomadaire,  pp.  168  and  169. 

39 


FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 

It  goes  without  saying  that  the  fundamental  fact  which 
distinguishes  women  physiologically  from  men,  is  their  par- 
ticular sex  function — the  bearing  of  children.  Their  anat- 
omy and  physiology  is  adapted  for  this  primal  function, 
whether  or  not  it  is  ever  to  be  realized,  whether  or  not  they 
are  ever  to  become  mothers  of  children.  The  unmarried  as 
well  as  the  married  woman,  therefore,  is  subject  to  the  phy- 
sical limitations  of  her  sex,  and  each  suffers  alike  from  those 
incidents  of  industrial  work  most  detrimental  to  the  female 
reproductive  system,  such  as  overstrain  from  excessive  speed 
and  complexity,  prolonged  standing,  and  the  absence  of  a 
monthly  day  of  rest.  These  and  similar  conditions  are  com- 
mon to  most  industrial  operations  and  they  are  particularly 
harmful  to  women. 

in  addition  to  their  susceptibility  to  injuries  of  the 
generative  organs,  working  women  have  been  found  more 
liable  than  men  to  disease  in  general.  There  is  a  consensus  of 
opinion  among  those  who  have  longest  observed  girls  and 
women  at  work,  that  the  burdens  of  industrial  life  press 
much  more  heavily  upon  them  than  upon  men.  Wherever 
statistics  of  the  morbidity  of  both  workingmen  and  working- 
women  exist,  the  morbidity  of  women  is  found  to  be  higher. 
Such  statistics  do  not  exist  in  this  country,  but  they  are  to  be 
found  abroad  in  the  records  of  foreign  sickness  insurance 
societies.*  The  two  most  important  facts  to  be  noted  are 
women's  higher  morbidity  when  compared  with  men  in  the 
same  occupations,  and  their  longer  duration  of  illness,  meas- 
ured by  the  number  of  days  lost  from  work. 

More  than  twenty  years  ago  the  eminent  Swiss  writers, 
Schuler  and  Burckhardt,  the  one  a  factory  inspector  and  the 
other  professor  of  hygiene  at  Bale,  showed  f  that  in  cotton 
mills  where  both  sexes  were  employed  the  relative  morbidity 
of  men  and  women  was  as  100  :  128.     This  was  in  the  spin- 

*  See  Journal  of  the  American  Medical  Association,  Vol.  LI  I,  No.  2, 
p.  138.     Editorial,  Jan.  9,  1909. 

t  Schuler,  Dr.  Fridolin,  und  Burckhardt,  Dr.  A.  E.:  Untersuchungen 
iiber  die  Gesundheilsverhaltnisse  der  Fabrikbevolkerung  der  Schweiz, 
p.  34.     Aarau,  Sauerlander,  1889. 

40 


THE    NATURE    OF    FATIGUE 

ning  rooms.    In  the  weaving  rooms  the  morbidity  of  women 
was  even  higher,  being  as  139  :  100. 

These  figures  have  since  been  confirmed  and  ampHfied 
by  other  authorities.  The  most  recent  authoritative  Ameri- 
can book  on  workingmen's  compensation  gives  the  morbidity 
figures  of  German  insurance  societies  during  a  period  of 
years.  These  figures  concern  men  and  women  not  of  the 
same  trades.  The  number  of  cases  of  sickness  among  men 
is  greater  than  among  women,  but  the  duration  of  women's 
illnesses  is  longer.  Hence,  what  is  technically  called  the 
co-efficient  of  morbidity,  that  is,  the  "duration  of  sickness 
per  member  each  year,"  is  higher  for  women  than  for  men.* 


PER  CENT  AND  DURATION   OF  SICKNESS   IN   GERMAN   SICKNESS 
INSURANCE    SOCIETIES,    1888-1907 


1888 

1892 

190S 

1904 

1905 

1906 

1907 

Cases  of  sick-  ]  Men 

33.5 

36.8 

38.3 

40.9 

41.4 

39.4 

42.7 

ness  per  year 
per    100  in- 
sured.            J  Women 

28.8 

31.1 

33.0 

35.4 

35.0 

33.4 

35.6 

Averagenum-     Men 
ber  of  days 
of     sickness 
per  case        J  Women 

16.6 
17.7 

17.0 
18.3 

18.1 
21.9 

18.7 
23.2 

18.7 
23.5 

18.5 
24.1 

18.5 
23.4 

Days  of  sick-     Men 

555.6 

626.6 

695.3 

762.1 

775.9 

728.6    788.7 

ness  per  an- 
num per  100 
insured           ]  Women 

508.3 

569.7 

720.4 

822.9 

927.9 

804.7 

833.1 

The  same  thing  is  shown  in  a  recent  Swiss  report  regarding 
the  morbidity  of  men  and  women  in  the  Swiss  mutual  insur- 
ance societies.! 

*  Frankel,  Lee  K.,  and  Dawson,  Miles  W.:  Workingmen's  Insurance 
in  Europe,  pp.  240  and  241.  Russell  Sage  Foundation  Publication.  New 
York,  Charities  Publication  Committee,  1910. 

t  Die  Gegenseitige  Hilfsgesellschaften  in  der  Schweiz  im  Jahre  1903, 
Berne,  1907. 

41 


FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 

"Among  100  insured  men  an  average  of  26.76  received 
sick  relief;  but  among  100  women  only  24.26.  The  men  who 
received  sick  relief  averaged  23.55  days  of  illness;  the  women 
averaged  32.46. 

"The  women,  therefore,  showed  a  lower  percentage  of 
relief  but  a  longer  average  duration  of  sick  time,  and  as  a 
result  of  these  two  circumstances  the  average  morbidity  of 
the  women  is  higher  than  that  of  the  men — 7.87  as  against 
6.30." 

A  German  authority  gives  somewhat  less  recent  but 
interesting  comparative  figures  of  German  and  Austrian  sick- 
ness insurance  societies,  showing  in  each  case  the  same  longer 
duration  of  women's  illnesses.  For  each  100  persons  the  days 
of|illness  per  person  averaged  as  follows:  In  the  German 
society  referred  to,  the  men  averaged  21.6  days  lost  through 
illness,  the  women  averaged  24.4  days  so  lost.  In  the  Aus- 
trian society  the  men  lost  on  an  average  16.5  days  as  com- 
pared with  an  average  of  18.8  days  lost  by  the  women.* 

Thus  are  women  physiologically  handicapped  by  a 
greater  general  liability  to  disease,  and  a  peculiar  suscepti- 
bility to  injuries  of  the  generative  organs.  In  a  word,  they 
are  less  resistant  to  fatigue  than  men,  and  their  organisms 
suffer  more  gravely  than  men's  from  the  strains  and  stresses 
of  industrial  life,  to  whose  newer  aspects  we  are  next  to  turn. 

*  Prinzing,  Dr.  Friedrich:  Handbuch  der  Medizinischen  Statistik, 
p.  110.    Jena,  Fischer,  1906. 


42 


Ill 

THE  NEW  STRAIN  IN  INDUSTRY 

WHAT,  then,  are  the  special  forms  of  overstrain  found 
in  modern  industry,  viewing  industrial  conditions, 
as  was  our  premise,  from  the  physiological  point  of 
view?  In  a  brief  sketch  of  this  vast  field  it  will  be  possible 
to  single  out  only  a  very  few  features  for  comment.  We  can 
do  no  more  than  glance,  as  it  were,  at  some  of  the  innumer- 
able processes  which  directly  or  indirectly  feed  the  machinery 
of  the  world,  supplying  man's  needs  and  luxuries. 

Of  those  elements  in  industry  which  are  most  charac- 
teristic and  which  make  the  greatest  demands  on  human 
energies,  we  may  select  the  following:  speed  and  complexity, 
monotony,  piece-work,  and  overtime.  Let  us  attempt  to 
gauge  the  part  played  by  these  factors  in  a  few  trades,  so  as 
to  have  before  us  some  concrete  examples  of  industrial  things 
as  they  are.  Other  fatiguing  influences  in  machine  work, 
such  as  noise  and  the  mechanical  rhythms,  will  of  necessity 
come  within  the  scope  of  our  brief  analysis,  as  well  as  the  now 
recognized  relation  between  fatigue  and  the  incidence  of 
industrial  accidents. 

1.    SPEED  AND  COMPLEXITY 

(a)  The  Telephone  Service 
Let  us  begin  with  our  first  factors,  speed  and  complexity. 
Measured  by  these,  few  trades  can  equal  in  their  demands 
upon  the  human  organism  an  occupation  newly  open  to  the 
girls  and  women  of  our  generation  and  practically  new  to  the 
last  decade.  This  is  the  ubiquitous  telephone  service, — that 
network  of  wires  which  spans  continents  and  binds  together, 

43 


FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 

as  never  before  in  history,  at  least  the  outward  and  visible 
activities  of  men.  Indeed,  we  could  scarcely  picture  to  our- 
selves the  spectacle  of  modern  life  without  a  telephone  at 
every  hand,  servant  of  every  whim  and  desire,  and  by  the 
same  token,  a  new  tyrant  that  few  can  escape. 

Now,  one  part  of  this  mechanism,  one  link  in  the  chain 
between  two  speakers,  is  the  girl's  voice  which  answers  every 
call  by  day  or  night,  a  link,  to  most  persons,  as  disembodied 
and  automatic  as  the  receiver  on  its  hook. 

We  are  to  look  a  little  more  closely  at  this  girl's  condi- 
tions of  work.  They  are  special  to  her  business,  but  not 
unfairly  typical  of  the  new  strain  in  all  industry.  Two  recent 
official  investigations*  give  us  an  unusual  abundance  of  facts 
by  which  to  gauge  that  phase  of  the  work  in  which  we  are 
here  interested:  its  effects  on  the  health  of  the  workers; 
its  cost,  not  in  money,  but  in  the  outlay  of  woman's  physio- 
logical powers. 

The  whole  telephone  business  is  new,  dating  from  1876. 
Originally  it  employed  only  men  and  boys.  In  1907,  ac- 
cording to  a  report  of  the  Bureau  of  the  Census,  there  were 
76,638  female  operators  in  the  United  States  as  against  3,576 
male  operators.  Something  like  twice  as  many  persons  were 
employed  in  other  positions  as  clerks,  mechanics,  officials,  and 
so  on.  We  shall  confine  ourselves  here  to  the  work  of  the 
women  operators. 

These  thousands  of  "telephone  girls"  whose  ages  vary 
from  sixteen  years  upward,  are  in  a  sense  picked  workers. f 
In  most  cities,  the  companies  require  for  the  efficiency  of  the 
service,  a  physical  examination  of  all  applicants,  and  seek  to 
exclude  girls  and  women  suffering  from  eye,  ear,  throat,  or 
heart  trouble.     Most  companies  have  also  an  educational 

*  Report  of  the  Royal  Commission  on  a  Dispute  Respecting  Hours 
of  Employment  between  the  Bell  Telephone  Company  of  Canada,  Ltd., 
and  Operators  at   ioronto,  Ontario.     Ottawa,  1907. 

Investigation  of  Telephone  Companies  made  by  the  United  States 
Bureau  of  Labor.  Senate  Document  No.  380,  61st  Congress,  2nd  Session. 
Washington,  1910. 

t  In  one  large  city,  out  of  6,152  applicants,  2,229  were  refused.  (Sen- 
ate Document  No.  380,  p.  19.) 

44 


THE    NEW    STRAIN    IN    INDUSTRY 

requirement,  accepting  no  applicants  who  have  not  completed 
the  fifth  or  grammar  grades  of  the  public  schools.  Most 
companies  also  give  a  month's  training  in  a  telephone  school 
where  applicants  learn  the  mechanism  of  the  switchboard 
and  the  manifold  duties  of  telephone  operating. 

These  picked  workers  also  receive,  on  the  whole,  more  in- 
telligent care  than  other  industrial  workers.  Fair  ventila- 
tion of  workrooms,  rest  rooms,  luncheons  provided  at  cost, 
and  free,  hot  beverages  at  lunch  time, — all  these  elementary 
"welfare"  provisions  have  been  found  useful  in  keeping  up 
the  operator's  efficiency  and  are  therefore  provided  by  most 
companies. 

So  much  we  have  on  the  credit  side  of  the  business, 
physiologically  viewed.  What,  then,  is  on  the  debit  side? 
To  gauge  this,  we  must  briefly  describe  what  telephone  oper- 
ating is.  The  most  concise  description  of  this  intricate  sub- 
ject involves  a  certain  amount  of  technical  detail,  since  the 
simplest  form  of  telephone  connection  requires  eleven  sep- 
arate processes  on  the  part  of  the  operator.  Yet  in  no  other 
way  than  by  tracing  these  separate  operations  can  we  in- 
telligently gauge  the  tax  of  this  occupation.  The  nature  of 
the  work,  the  large  and  daily  growing  number  of  girls  and 
women  engaged  in  it  throughout  the  country,  and  the  fact 
that  prominent  physicians  in  one  community  have  expressed 
themselves  forcibly  upon  its  physical  effects,  warrant  our 
devoting  material  attention  to  these  otherwise  unrelated 
details. 

The  center  of  the  telephone  system  is  the  "exchange." 
On  entering  the  operating  room  of  an  exchange  one  sees  per- 
haps one  hundred  young  women  seated  side  by  side,  on  ad- 
justable chairs  facing  the  switchboard,  which  extends  in  the 
form  of  a  semicircle  or  "U"  around  three  sides  of  the  room. 
The  switchboard  looks  not  unlike  a  continuous  line  of  up- 
right pianos  in  front  of  which  the  girls  are  seated.  Only, 
the  key-board  or  flat  shelf  extending  out  from  the  six-foot 
high  vertical  face  of  the  board  is  usually  wider  than  a  piano 
key-board,  varying  in  width  from  six  inches  to  a  foot.     The 

45 


FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 

vertical  face  of  the  board  is  marked  off  into  sections  and 
panels,  honey-combed  with  holes.  Each  hole  in  the  lower 
panel  of  the  vertical  board  is  the  terminal  of  a  subscriber's 
telephone,  and  the  holes  are  so  distributed  that  each  operator 
has  before  her  a  certain  number  of  telephones  for  which  she 
is  directly  responsible.  Just  over  each  hole,  or  "answering 
jack"  as  it  is  called,  there  is  a  glass-covered  orifice,  containing 
a  miniature  incandescent  lamp,  which  glows  whenever  a 
subscriber  lifts  his  receiver  from  the  hook.  This  light,  to- 
gether with  a  clicking  sound  which  she  hears  through  her 
receiver  whenever  she  "  listens  in,"  signals  to  the  operator  that 
she  is  being  called. 

On  the  upper  half  of  the  vertical  board  known  as  the 
"multiple"  are  the  terminals,  or  jacks,  of  all  telephones  con- 
nected with  the  exchange,  by  means  of  which  the  operator 
can  connect  her  subscribers  with  the  persons  whom  they  wish 
to  reach.  These  upper  jacks  are  repeated  or  "multiplied" 
over  and  over  throughout  the  switchboard,  usually  once  in 
each  section,  or  each  six  feet,  so  that  the  operator  can  reach 
any  line  for  which  she  is  asked. 

On  the  horizontal  shelf  or  key-board,  extending  out  from 
the  vertical  face  of  the  board,  there  are  two  rows  of  small 
metal  plugs,  attached  to  cords,  the  points  of  the  plugs  alone 
showing  above  the  surface  of  the  board.  A  little  nearer  to 
the  operator,  on  the  shelf,  are  two  rows  of  tiny  glass-covered 
signal  lamps  similar  to  those  over  the  subscribers'  jacks  de- 
scribed above,  and  still  closer  to  the  operator,  on  the  shelf, 
there  is  a  row  of  small  levers  or  keys. 

Such  is  the  apparatus,  together  with  the  operator's  in- 
dividual "set," — a  receiver  strapped  over  her  ear  and  a 
mouth-piece  or  transmitter  suspended  so  that  she  can  con- 
veniently speak  into  it,  leaving  both  hands  free.  When 
a  subscriber  lifts  his  receiver  to  call  "central,"  the  signal 
light  immediately  flashes  out  at  the  terminal  of  his  line  on 
the  switchboard.  The  operator  thereupon  gets  into  com- 
munication with  the  subscriber  by  inserting  one  of  the 
plugs  with  its  attached  cord  into  the  hole  or  jack  correspond- 

46 


THE    NEW    STRAIN    IN    INDUSTRY 

ing  with  the  glowing  hght.  She  then  throws  forward  one  of 
the  levers  known  as  the  "listening  key."  This  connects  her 
with  the  calling  subscriber  and  extinguishes  the  signal  light. 
She  asks,  in  the  wellknown  phrase,  "Number,  please,"  and 
upon  receiving  a  reply  makes  the  desired  connection  as  fol- 
lows: She  inserts  the  companion  end  of  the  cord  which  she 
has  used  (the  cords  are  in  pairs  with  a  plug  at  the  end  of 
each),  into  the  proper  hole  on  the  upper  "multiple"  portion 
of  the  board,  bearing  the  number  of  the  desired  person.  She 
also  rings  up  this  second  person  by  pressing  another  lever,  at 
the  same  time  discontinuing  her  listening  key.*  Then  she 
makes  her  first  entry  upon  a  prescribed  slip,  in  order  to 
register  the  call. 

Thus  two  subscribers  are  in  communication.  But  there 
must  be  some  way  for  the  operator  to  learn  automatic- 
ally when  the  conversation  is  ended.  Therefore  each  pair  of 
cords  have  connected  to  them  two  of  the  tiny  signal  lamps. 
When  the  operator  inserts  the  plugs  into  the  jacks  their  cor- 
responding lights  begin  to  glow.  As  soon  as  the  called  sub- 
scriber lifts  his  receiver  the  signal  light  goes  out,  showing 
the  operator  that  her  ringing  has  been  answered.  The 
lights  remain  out  during  conversation,  but  as  soon  as  the 
subscribers  have  finished  and  hang  their  receivers,  the  lights 
above  the  companion  plugs  again  begin  to  glow.  This  warns 
the  operator  to  sever  the  connections  and  to  clear  the  jacks 
for  the  next  call. 

Thus  the  telephone  girl  must  be  continually  at  the  top- 
notch  of  expectancy,  watching  intently  for  the  flash  of  the 
signal  lights,  responding  instantly  to  the  clicking  sounds 
heard  whenever  impatient  subscribers  move  their  hooks  up 
and  down,  making  and  severing  connections  with  all  the 
speed  she  may. 

The  mere  statement  of  these  operations  in  the  simplest 
form  of  telephone  connection,  gives  us  some  insight  into  the 
prodigious  strain  of  this  occupation  upon  the  special  senses, — 

*  In  New  York  City,  the  operation  of  ringing  and  listening  is  done 
with  one  key. 

47 


FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 

sight,  hearing,  touch, — as  well  as  the  muscular  exertion  of 
reaching  high  up  and  to  the  side.  We  cannot  here  enter  into 
the  complex  modifications  of  the  general  system  described 
above  (as  when  a  subscriber  is  called  whose  telephone  ter- 
minates in  a  different  exchange),  and  the  many  diflferent  color 
signals  which  the  operator  must  instantly  recognize  when 
they  flash  before  her,  such  as,  toll  calls,  nickel  machine  calls, 
and  many  others. 

As  regards  the  physical  effects  of  the  work,  we  are 
fortunately  not  thrown  upon  surmise  but  have  expert  medical 
testimony  to  draw  upon.  This  is  available  in  the  remarkable 
report  of  the  royal  commission  appointed  to  investigate  a 
dispute  between  the  Bell  Telephone  Company  of  Canada  and 
their  operators  at  Toronto.  The  26  physicians  who  testified 
had  examined  the  exchanges  and  the  nature  of  the  work. 
We  must  postpone  until  our  next  chapter  their  detailed  state- 
ments as  to  the  detriment  to  health  from  overwork  in  the 
taxing  telephone  service,  the  specific  injuries  to  the  sense 
organs,  and  the  disastrous  reactions  upon  the  operator's 
nervous  system.  Here  it  is  enough  to  say  that  after  weigh- 
ing the  physicians'  testimony  and  recommendations,  the 
royal  commission,  with  some  misgivings,  permitted  the  total 
number  of  working  hours  for  women  switchboard  operators 
to  be  fixed  at  seven  hours,  broken  by  several  relief  periods 
and  spread  over  a  period  of  nine  hours. 

The  commission  took  pains  to  say,  however,  that  in 
view  of  the  medical  evidence  before  them,  a  seven-hour  work- 
day for  telephone  operators  seemed  to  them  "still  too  long," 
and  they  concluded: 

"  In  our  opinion  a  day  of  six  working  hours  spread  over 
a  period  of  from  eight  to  eight  and  three-quarter  hours,  and 
under  as  favorable  conditions  as  may  be  expected  in  an  ex- 
change doing  a  large  business,  is  quite  long  enough  for  a 
woman  to  be  engaged  in  this  class  of  work,  if  a  proper  regard 
is  to  be  had  for  the  effect  upon  her  health."* 

*  Two  hours'  work,  14  hour  relief,  \y^  hours'  work,  1  hour  intermission, 
2  hours'  work,  ]A  hour  reMef,  and  1>^  hours'  work.  Report  of  the  Royal 
Commission,  pp.  99-100. 

48 


THE    NEW    STRAIN    IN    INDUSTRY 

Such  being  the  royal  commission's  mature  conclusions, 
we  turn  to  consider  the  same  work  in  the  United  States,  as 
set  forth  in  the  recent  report  of  the  United  States  Bureau  of 
Labor.  .The  methods  of  operating  here  and  in  Canada  are 
the  same. 

Where  the  royal  Canadian  commission  found  seven 
hours  "still  too  long"  and  recommended  six  hours,  we  find 
the  average  hours  of  work  in  the  United  States  reported  as 
eight  and  a  half  hours  per  day.  But  this  is  one  of  the  aver- 
ages which  hide  the  truth,  and,  in  practice,  owing  to  various 
reasons,  the  actual  working  hours  are  much  longer.  Tele- 
phone operators  are  divided  into  various  working  groups,  or 
"tricks,"  who  come  on  and  go  off  duty  at  widely  varying 
terminal  hours,  and  have  their  luncheon  and  relief  periods  at 
separate  times.  During  certain  busy  hours  of  the  day,  known 
as  "  peak  of  the  load,"  morning  and  afternoon,  the  service  is 
vastly  increased  and  requires  an  increased  number  of  oper- 
ators. These  various  arrangements  of  work  are  necessary 
because  the  telephone  exchange  is  never  closed.  The  fires 
of  Vesta  burn  day  and  night!  They  must  be  tended  un- 
ceasingly. 

If  the  average  working  hours  are  eight  and  a  half  per  day, 
then  many  girls  must  work  longer  than  that  each  day,  as 
others  work  less.  Thus,  to  mention  merely  at  random  some 
daily  hours  far  in  excess  of  the  average  eight  and  a  half, 
in  1910  the  night  operators  of  the  Bell  Telephone  System 
were  reported  working  fifteen  hours  in  Springfield,  Missouri; 
twelve  hours  in  Kansas  City,  Missouri;  nine  hours  in  New 
Orleans,  Louisiana,  and  in  Dallas,  Texas.  Day  operators 
were  reported  as  employed  ten  hours  net  in  Kansas  City, 
and  nine  hours  net  in  Atlanta,  Georgia.  And  the  day  oper- 
ators of  the  American  Telephone  and  Telegraph  Company 
were  reported  as  employed  nine  hours  net  in  Kansas  City 
and  New  York  City.* 

The  requirement  of  overtime  work  makes  the  workday 
even  longer,  although  the  hours  officially  reported  already 
*  Senate  Document  No.  380,  61st  Congress,  2nd  Session,  pp.  37  and  38. 
4  49 


FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 

by  far  exceed  the  maximum  deemed  compatible  with  health 
by  the  Canadian  physicians. 

The  custom  of  requiring  overtime  in  most  companies 
lengthens  the  workday  by  adding  from  a  few  minutes  to  two 
and  a  half  hours.  The  American  report  is  full  of  references 
to  this  pernicious  practice.  In  one  city,  for  instance,  where 
overtime  is  "  not  above  the  average,"  the  company  reports 
that,  on  overtime,  their  day  operators  are  on  the  premises 
twelve  and  a  half  hours  and  on  duty  ten  hours.  Overtime  is 
stated  to  be  an  "integral  part"  of  the  schedule  of  hours  in  a 
number  of  telephone  companies. 

"Operators  not  only  are  asked  to  take  their  turn  in 
working  extra  hours,  but  in  some  companies  a  regular  extra 
period  is  assigned  to  each  operator  for  certain  days  each  week. 
She  is  virtually  compelled  to  do  this  extra  work,  lest  by  re- 
fusing she  incur  the  displeasure  of  her  chief  operator,  or  get 
the  reputation  of  shirking  her  share  of  work."* 

The  report  of  the  commission  to  investigate  the  condi- 
tions of  working  women  in  Kentucky,  states  that  in  one 
exchange  where  the  regular  hours  were  nine  in  one  day,  an 
operator  worked  39  hours  overtime  during  the  first  two  weeks 
of  November,  1911,  in  addition  to  her  daily  work.  The 
report  adds:  "This  is  not  an  exceptional  case.  Many  other 
girls  are  working  as  long  hours."! 

One  of  the  most  vicious  forms  of  overtime  is  known  as 
"working  through";  that  is,  working  on  both  a  day  and  a 
night  shift.  Thus,  in  one  company,  where  the  shift  known 
as  the  "split  trick  operators"  usually  work  eight  hours 
(from  11  a.  m.  to  2  p.  m.,  and  from  4  to  9  p.  m.),  an  operator 
who  "works  through"  is  employed  thirteen  and  one-half 
hours  (from  11  a.  m.  to  2  p.  m.,  and  again  from  4  p.  m.  to  7 
the  next  morning),  with  four  and  one-half  hours  off  duty 
during  the  night. 

♦Senate  Document  No.  3cS0,  p.  110. 

t  Report  of  the  Commission  to  Investigate  the  Conditions  of  Working 
Women  in  Kentucky,  p.  30.     Louisville,  December,  1911. 

50 


THE    NEW    STRAIN    IN    INDUSTRY 

"The  next  day  the  operator  reports  as  usual.  In  one 
case  a  fifteen-year-old  girl  (who  claims  to  be  sixteen)  is  re- 
ported 'working  through'  four  times  in  two  weeks.  While 
this  is  not  a  regular  thing,"  says  the  report,  "it  is  done  with 
sufficient  frequency  to  be  worth  noting."* 

In  connection  with  overtime  work,  nothing  is  more 
striking  than  the  extreme  variation  in  the  number  and  per- 
centage of  operators  employed  on  overtime  in  various  cities. 
In  New  York  City,  for  instance,  it  is  reported  that  less  than 
one-fifth  of  one  per  cent  of  the  operators  work  overtime  in  a 
given  period.  In  Boston  and  Washington,  also,  the  number 
is  small,  while  in  New  Orleans  and  Omaha  over  90  per  cent  of 
the  operators  worked  overtime  during  the  same  period.  In 
Cleveland,  Louisville,  and  Nashville,  over  85  per  cent,  in 
San  Francisco  and  Dallas,  Texas,  and  Atlanta,  Georgia,  over 
60  per  cent  of  the  operators  are  reported  to  have  worked 
overtime.! 

Besides  overtime,  several  other  hardships  of  the  tele- 
phone service  which  are  prominent  in  the  American  report, 
and  greatly  intensify  the  strain  of  this  occupation,  need 
mention.  One  of  these  is  the  almost  universal  requirement 
of  Sunday  work  twice  a  month.  This  hardship  speaks  for 
itself  and  scarcely  needs  comment.  It  means  that  for  most 
operators  the  day  of  rest,  which  may  not  be  lost  without 
physiological  retribution,  comes  only  once  a  fortnight. 
Sunday  and  holiday  work  clearly  cannot  be  avoided  in  the 
telephone  service,  but  as  the  report  remarks,  only  two  large 
companies  "have  discovered  that  this  need  not  mean  seven 
days'  work  each  week." 

A  second  acute  hardship  of  the  service  concerns  the  relief 
periods,  usually  fifteen  minutes  long,  which  are  designed 
to  break  the  morning  and  afternoon  work.  The  Canadian 
physicians  laid  supreme  stress  upon  the  importance  of  such 
reliefs  as  absolutely  indispensable  periods  of  recuperation, 
considering  even  twenty  minutes  off  duty  too  short  to  com- 
pensate for  a  two-hour  period  of  work;  but  in  many  com- 
*  Senate  Document  No.  380,  pp.  111-112.  t  'bid.,  pp.  90-91. 

51 


FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 

panics  these  reliefs  are  regarded  by  the  management  as  favors 
to  be  given  or  withheld  at  will,  rather  than  necessities.  At 
any  "rush"  when  most  needed,  the  reliefs  are  most  often 
curtailed.  Of  331  girl  operators  interviewed  by  agents  of 
the  Bureau  of  Labor,  126,  or  more  than  one-third,  reported 
that  they  had  either  no  relief  or  received  it  only  on  request. 

"Where  this  system  obtains,  girls  feel  a  reluctance  to 
ask  for  relief;  sometimes  they  feel  that  to  do  so  is  to  jeopard- 
ize promotions,  and  the  new  operators  who  need  it  most  are 
usually  the  very  ones  who  fail  to  get  it,  because  a  feeling  of 
strangeness  or  timidity  keeps  them  from  asking  favors."* 

A  third  hardship  of  the  telephone  service,  as  disastrous 
to  the  operator's  health  as  the  loss  of  the  "relief,"  is  known 
as  "excess  loading."  This  concerns  the  number  of  calls 
handled  by  each  operator  per  hour.  Most  of  the  experts  for 
the  companies  consider  225  calls  per  hour  the  "breaking 
point  of  efficiency,"  that  is,  the  number  which  cannot  be 
greatly  exceeded  for  many  minutes  without  injuring  the 
service  rendered  to  the  public.     As  the  report  rightly  states: 

"  It  is  safe  to  say  that  the  breaking  point  of  the  operator's 
health  is  not  far  from  the  breaking  point  of  efficient  work."t 

"She  is  expected  to  give  all  the  subscribers  the  quickest 
possible  service  in  the  order  in  which  their  calls  come  in,  but 
when  several  signals  come  at  once  and  others  come  before 
these  can  be  cared  for,  the  order  of  calls  is  necessarily  lost 
and  the  effort  is  concentrated  merely  on  clearing  the  board,  or 
catching  up.  It  must  not  be  forgotten  that  with  each  signal 
there  is  not  only  the  flashing  of  a  small  light  in  the  operator's 
eyes,  but  there  is  a  clicking  sound  in  her  ears  through  the 
receivers  fastened  to  her  head.  So  when  the  impatient  sub- 
scriber, angry  because  his  call  has  not  been  answered,  moves 
the  receiver  hook  of  his  'phone  up  and  down  rapidly,  he 
flashes  the  signal  light  in  front  of  the  operator,  and  produces 
a  click  in  her  ears  every  time  the  hook  goes  up  and  down. 
The  consciousness  of  numbers  of  people  waiting  for  call  con- 
nections she  is  unable  to  make,  and  that  each  one  is  growing 
more  impatient  each  second;    that  a  supervisor  is  standing 

*  Senate  Document  No.  380,  p.  33.  t  Ibid.,  p.  60. 

52 


THE    NEW    STRAIN    IN    INDUSTRY 

behind  her  either  hurrying  her  or  calHng  her  numbers  to  be 
taken  by  other  operators;  that  a  monitor  may  plug  in  and 
criticise  any  moment, — these,  with  the  height  of  up-reach 
and  length  of  side-reach,  go  to  form  the  elements  of  strain  on 
the  operator  who  is  'overloaded.'"* 

Yet,  in  spite  of  its  known  effect  upon  health  and  effi- 
ciency, an  inexcusable  degree  of  overloading  exists  in  a  wide 
range  of  cities,  chiefly  in  the  south  and  west.  Accepting  an 
average  of  225  calls  per  hour  as  the  breaking  point,  many 
exchanges  were  found  exceeding  that  number  for  all  operators 
in  the  exchange.  The  table  below  gives  some  of  the  cities 
found  exceeding  not  only  this  accepted  limit,  but  exceeding 
275  calls  per  hour.f 


TELEPHONE  EXCHANGES  IN  FIVE  CITIES  WHERE  CALLS  EXCEED 
275    PER    HOUR 


Company 


Mo.   and  Kansas  Tel. 
Co 


Pac.    Tel.    and    Tele- 
graph Co 


So.  Bell  Tel.  and  Tele- 
graph Co 


City 


Kansas  City,  Mo. 
Los  Angeles,  Cal. 


San  Francisco, 
Cal. 


Exchange 


West 
East 


Market 
Franklin 
Queen  Ann 


Seattle,  Wash. 
Birmingham,  Ala.  Main 


Hour 
Ending 

9  P.M. 

6P.M. 

7  P.M. 

8  P.M. 

11P.M. 

3  P.M. 

6  P.M. 

11P.M. 

No.  of 
Calls 


281.7 

285.2 
317.0 
303.0 
279.0 
308.3 
283.2 

301.5 


(b)  Speed  in  the  Needle  Trades    ^^-"^ 
Turning  now  to  other  industries  in  which  women  and 
children  are  employed  in  great  numbers,  we  find  a  similar 
*  Ibid.,  p.  56.  t  Ibid.,  p.  61. 

53 


FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 

State  of  affairs.  Let  us  next  consider  the  t>pically  feminine 
occupation  of  sewing,  the  traditional  sphere  of  womankind. 

It  is  undeniable  that  a  great  saving  of  human  energy 
was  accomplished  when  the  first  power  machines  replaced 
the  ordinary  foot  sewing  machine.  Long  hours  of  work  at 
foot  sewing  machines  had  been  responsible  for  many  female 
disorders  and  had  wrecked  the  lives  of  many  women.  But 
we  must  not  close  our  eyes  to  the  cost  of  the  new  order. 

Mention  has  already  been  made  of  the  increasing  per- 
fection of  motor  sewing  machines.  Some  kinds,  as  we  have 
seen,  now  carry  12  needles,  others  set  almost  4000  stitches  a 
minute.  Let  any  observer  enter  a  modern  roaring,  vibrating 
workroom  where  several  hundred  young  women  are  gathered 
together,  each  at  her  marvelous  machine,  which  automatically 
hems,  tucks,  cords,  sews  seams  together,  or  sews  on  the 
embroidery  trimming  of  white  underwear,  in  the  well 
equipped  shops  each  girl  has  a  brilliant  electric  light,  often 
unshaded,  hanging  directly  in  front  of  her  eyes  over  the 
machine.  Her  attention  cannot  relax  a  second  while  the 
machine  runs  its  deafening  course,  for  at  the  breaking  of  any 
one  of  the  12  gleaming  needles  or  the  12  darting  threads,  the 
power  must  instantly  be  shut  off.  The  roar  of  the  machines 
is  so  great  that  one  can  hardly  make  oneself  heard  by  shout- 
ing to  the  person  who  stands  beside  one. 

What  must  be  the  physiological  effect  of  work  so  carried 
on  during  long  hours?  In  New  York  state,  for  instance,  the 
great  center  for  the  manufacture  of  women's  stitched  white 
wear,  which  is  supposed  to  have  been  perfecting  its  laws  for 
women  since  their  first  enactment  twenty-six  years  ago, 
young  girls  who  have  reached  their  sixteenth  birthday  may 
legally  be  employed  at  power  machines  twelve  hours  in  the 
day  during  five  days  in  the  week.*  Illegally,  they  are  em- 
ployed even  longer  at  "rush"  seasons. 

The  strain  of  this  industry  is  further  intensified  by  two 
other  factors,  which  will  be  discussed  subsequently  more  at 
length,  but  which  must  not  go  unmentioned  here.  Pay  so 
*See  page  4  for  new  law  enacted  in  1912. 

54 


THE    NEW    STRAIN    IN    INDUSTRY 

low  that  it  makes  a  less  than  living  wage,  and  great  irregular- 
ity of  employment,  exist  in  the  stitching  trades  in  combina- 
tion with  the  excessively  long  hours,  possibly  because  of  them. 
These  factors,  at  any  rate,  make  an  evil  combination, — upper 
and  nether  millstones  between  which  the  health  of  the  girls 
and  women  in  this  trade  is  almost  inevitably  ground.  It  is 
true  that  some  girls  earn  high  wages  at  piece-rates  during  the 
busy  season,  reaching  $18  and  $20  per  week.  But  the  busy 
season  is  short — varying  from  two  to  three  months  for  the 
winter,  and  again  for  the  summer  trade,  and  the  year's  earn- 
ings of  the  best  paid  workers  fall  short  of  decent  self-support. 
The  great  majority  earn  wages  so  low  and  so  precarious  (from 
$4.00  to  $8.00  or  $10  per  week),  with  weeks  and  months  of 
non-employment,  that  were  it  not  for  the  testimony  of  trust- 
worthy witnesses  it  would  be  scarcely  credible  that  women 
living  away  from  home  and  wholly  dependent  upon  them- 
selves, could  support  life  on  such  a  yearly  income.* 

These  allied  problems  of  low  wages  and  irregularity  of 
work  may  seem  to  lead  too  far  afield  from  our  special  interest 
in  industrial  overstrain.  But  they  are  closely  knit  to  it,  and 
in  a  dozen  ways  are  related  to  the  length  of  the  day's  work. 
With  over-long  hours,  even  with  the  ten-hour  day,  all  that 
double  burden  of  household  work  added  to  wage  work,  which 
no  workingwoman  can  wholly  escape,  becomes  more  burden- 
some. Whether  she  lives  at  home,  her  own  or  her  parents', 
and  helps  in  the  household,  or  lives  alone  and  is  thrown  on 
her  own  resources  for  clothing  and  clean  linen  as  well  as  for 
food  and  for  some  sort  of  habitat,  she  must  find  time  for  some 
domestic  duties  after  her  wage  work  is  done. 

Two  traditional  economies  of  women,  unattained  by  men, 
are  washing  their  linen,  and  mending,  if  not  making,  their 
own  clothes;  and  after  a  working  day  of  reasonable  length, 
working  girls  can  and  do  achieve  these  economies  without 
too  great  a  tax  upon  their  endurance.     But  when  overtime 

*  Clark,  S.  A.,  and  Wyatt,  Edith:  Making  Both  Ends  Meet.  New 
York,  Macmillan,  1911.  (These  articles  are  based  upon  a  study  made  for 
the  National  Consumers'  League  of  the  income  and  outlay  of  more  than 
200  working  girls,  living  away  from  home,  in  New  York  City.) 

55 


FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 

confines  them,  as  it  does  in  the  stitching  trades,  until  nine 
and  ten  o'clock  at  night,  irregularly,  for  weeks  in  succession, 
we  find  such  pitiable  items  as  those  disclosed  in  the  study 
above  referred  to,  of  200  working  girls  who  live  away  from 
home  in  New  York  City.  In  one  case  of  extreme  overwork, 
out  of  a  total  yearly  expenditure  of  only  $41.85  for  all  cloth- 
ing, an  unhappy  overworked  girl  spent  $15.60  for  stockings. 
She  lacked  time  and  strength  for  the  humblest  care  of  her 
wardrobe,  darning  stockings,  and  instead,  continued  all  year 
to  buy  two  pairs  a  week,  at  15  cents  each.  In  another  case  a 
similar  disproportionate  expenditure  of  $23.52  for  24  shirt- 
waists at  98  cents  a  piece,  out  of  a  whole  year's  expenditure 
of  $194.50,  resulted  also  from  an  exhausted  girl's  lack  of  time 
and  spirit  for  mending.  The  remarkable  folly  of  such  ex- 
penditures makes  them  none  the  less  piteous  evidences  of  the 
exhaustion  of  these  girl  operators,  alternately  overworked  at 
high  power  machines  and  then  left  destitute  of  work  and 
health. 

Many  other  ways  might  be  shown  in  which  low  wages 
together  with  the  excessive  length  of  the  workday  contribute 
to  the  new  strain  of  industries.  Physiologically  considered, 
as  we  shall  see,  the  worst  effect  of  low  pay,  especially  low 
piece-rates  such  as  prevail  in  the  stitching  trades,  is  their 
incentive  to  a  too  great  intensity  of  work,  and  to  a  feverish 
speed  on  the  part  of  the  operators. 

(c)  The  Textile  Industry 
In  the  sewing  trades,  then,  the  elements  of  speed  and 
complexity  are  growing  by  leaps  and  bounds.  The  same 
thing  is  evident  in  another  great  trade,  employing  women  and 
children,  the  textile  industry.  Here  the  increasing  strain  upon 
the  workers,  due  to  improved  equipment,  may  be  described 
by  one  of  the  officials  whose  daily  work  brings  them  into  con- 
tact with  the  conditions  of  which  they  speak. 

"  For  the  first  time  women  were  interviewed  who  were 
running  twelve  and  sixteen  Draper  looms.     These  machines 

56 


THE    NEW    STRAIN    IN    INDUSTRY 

are  practically  a  recent  addition,  and  are  so  arranged  that 
the  filling  in  the  shuttle  is  changed  automatically,  thus  enab- 
ling them  to  go  at  a  greater  rate  of  speed  and  with  less  inter- 
ruption. The  women  are  not  expected  to  clean,  oil  or  sweep. 
This  matter  was  quite  fully  discussed  and  the  complaint  made 
that  the  work  was  too  hard,  but  that  they  tried  to  do  it,  as 
they  were  dependent  upon  their  positions  and  they  knew  there 
were  plenty  of  foreign  men  waiting  for  their  places.  Where 
a  woman  has  been  accustomed  to  tend  a  six-loom  set,  with 
the  Drapers  she  is  given  from  twelve  to  sixteen,  which  extend 
over  quite  an  area.  There  is  no  time  for  sitting  during  the 
day,  as  when  employed  on  the  other  looms.  One  woman 
said  she  could  not  sleep  at  night  after  running  these  vast 
machines,  and  many  have  had  to  give  up  their  places  and 
find  other  work. 

"This  marks  another  evolution  in  the  machinery  world. 
Years  ago,  a  woman  tended  two  slowly  running  looms. 
Later,  as  the  hours  of  work  grew  less,  the  number  of  looms  was 
increased  to  four  and  six,  and  now  with  the  Drapers,  an 
operative  is  expected  to  look  out  for  twelve  or  sixteen."* 

Even  this  statement  does  not  fully  cover  the  facts.  It 
is  not  uncommon  in  New  England  mills  for  one  weaver  to 
tend  from  16  to  24  Northrup  or  Draper  looms.  The  number 
of  looms  attended  by  one  weaver  has  even  risen  as  high  as  36 
in  southern  and,  less  frequently,  in  northern  mills.  But  the 
output  is  said  to  be  less  satisfactory  than  when  each  worker 
runs  a  smaller  number  of  looms. 

It  is  true  that  the  new  automatic  attachments  of  the 
Draper  loom  enable  weavers  to  run  a  larger  number  of  such 
machines  with  no  greater  effort  or  fatigue  than  was  formerly 
involved  in  running  a  smaller  number  of  old  looms.  But 
this  is  true  only  up  to  a  certain  point.  According  to  a  liberal 
estimate,  after  a  weaver  is  required  to  attend  more  than  18 
looms,  the  advantages  of  the  new  devices  are  more  than  coun- 
terbalanced by  the  increase  in  numbers,  and  the  strain  of  the 
occupation  becomes  too  great.  Thus,  for  instance,  the  strain 
upon  the  weaver's  attention  was  greatly  lessened  by  such  an 
automatic  invention  as  the  recent  warp  stop-motion,  whereby 

*  Report  of  the  Maine  Bureau  of  Industrial  and  Labor  Statistics, 
1908,  pp.  42-43. 

57 


FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 

power  is  automatically  turned  off  and  the  loom  stops  at 
breakage  of  the  warp.  But  when  one  weaver  has  perhaps 
24  looms  to  tend  in  place  of  the  former  eight,  the  strain  upon 
attention  in  watching  for  the  automatic  stoppage  of  the  looms 
is  even  greater  than  before.  Since  the  weaver's  wages  depend 
upon  the  continuous  running  of  the  machines,  the  strain  is 
continuous. 

The  space  over  which  24  looms  extend  requires  also  much 
more  walking  on  the  part  of  the  weaver,  since  she  may  be 
called  to  and  fro  to  any  one  of  the  looms  in  turn,  to  any  place 
in  the  alley  or  alleys  along  which  they  are  ranged.  Yet  the 
physical  and  nervous  cost  of  running  three  times  as  many 
looms  as  before  the  Drapers  were  invented,  has  been  so  little 
regarded  that  the  manufacturers  of  the  loom  prophesy*  an 
even  greater  increase  in  the  number  of  machines  per  worker. 
They  see  no  reason  why  in  time  one  weaver  should  not  run 
50  looms,  provided  only  that  a  sliding  seat  be  arranged  along 
the  alley  to  relieve  her  from  constant  walking  to  and  fro.  If 
this  hopeful  prophecy  is  not  fulfilled,  it  will  probably  be 
due  to  the  unsatisfactory  economic  results  of  the  machinery 
rather  than  to  any  consideration  of  the  human  agents. 

2.     MONOTONY 

Besides  speed  and  complexity  of  operation,  work  with 
the  Draper  looms  illustrates  also  a  third  factor  in  industrial 
strain,  mentioned  at  the  outset;  that  is,  monotony  of  occu- 
pation. Weavers  formerly  varied  their  work  by  cleaning 
and  oiling  the  machines,  fetching  their  own  filling,  etc.  Now 
all  these  things  are  done  by  less  skilled  hands,  while  the 
weaver,  in  order  to  keep  up  with  the  number  of  her  looms, 
attends  strictly  and  continuously  to  running  the  machines. 

In  all  trades,  operations  tend  to  become  more  and  more 
machinelike  in  regularity  and  sameness.  Labor  tends  to 
become  more  and  more  subdivided,  each  worker  performing 
steadily  one  operation,  or  part  of  one  operation. 

*  Labor  Saving  Looms,  p.  112.  Third  Edition.  The  Draper  Co.,  Hope- 
dale,  Mass..  1907. 

i  58 


THE   NEW    STRAIN    IN    INDUSTRY 

This  kind  of  single-minded  concentration  of  the  workers 
upon  their  immediate  tasks  obviously  makes  for  speed  and 
perfection  of  output.  It  is  an  integral  part  of  the  new  indus- 
trial efficiency  of  our  day  and  it  saves  constant  waste,  both 
of  time  and  of  materials.  But  we  must  also  consider  the 
reverse  side  of  the  picture.  If  concentration  and  subdivision 
are  part  of  the  new  efficiency  they  are  part,  too,  of  its  new 
strain.  So  far  as  the  workers  are  concerned,  subdivision 
and  concentration  are  added  hardships  of  the  long  day.  For 
they  lead  to  that  monotony  which  results  from  the  endless 
repetition  of  the  same  operations,  and  against  which  the 
human  spirit  innately  revolts.  Monotony,  indeed,  may  make 
highly  taxing  to  our  organism  work  which  is  ordinarily  con- 
sidered light  and  easy.  This  may  be  observed  in  many 
different  occupations. 

(a)  The  Canneries 

Thus,  in  the  canneries,  which  are  increasing  from  year 
to  year  in  every  fruit  and  vegetable  growing  state  from  Maine 
to  California,  the  chief  fatigue  of  the  work  is  due  to  its  com- 
bined speed  and  monotony. 

We  may  well  examine  a  little  in  detail  some  of  the  or- 
dinary cannery  processes,  because  they  illustrate  the  new 
strain  of  industry  which  we  are  considering,  and  because  the 
physical  and  nervous  tax  of  these  occupations  has  been  little 
recognized  throughout  the  country.  A  comparatively  short 
span  of  time  has  sufficed  to  see  evolved  from  the  yearly  preserv- 
ing and  jelly  pots  of  our  mothers'  generation  the  highly  speeded, 
intricate  machinery  of  the  modern  canneries.  Indeed,  the 
transformation  of  the  industry  is  not  yet  complete.  Canning 
has  still  the  double  disadvantage  of  a  household  and  a  factory 
business.  Cannery  workers  suffer  from  all  the  pressure  and 
speed  of  great  commercial  establishments.  They  suffer  also 
from  the  canner's  inadequate  methods  of  management,  in- 
herited from  the  original  home  work  which  preceded  the 
canneries.  When  each  family  provided  for  itself  a  winter's 
supply  of  fruits  and  sweets,  there  was  little  hardship  in  a 

59 


FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 

few  days'  work  at  picking  and  preserving.  It  is  popularly 
supposed  that  canning  today  is  very  much  the  same,  and 
that  it  affords  farmers'  wives  and  children,  in  certain  parts 
of  the  country,  pleasant  holiday  work  and  pin  money  during 
the  summer. 

But  in  reality  this  is  far  from  true.  We  may  take  as 
typical,  in  spite  of  local  difTerences,  the  canneries  in  New  York 
state,  since  a  recent  official  investigation*  describes  the  con- 
ditions there,  and  they  happen  also  to  be  familiar  to  the  writer. 

Any  person  who  is  not  familiar  with  these  establish- 
ments must  imagine  them  situated  sometimes  in  open  coun- 
try, sometimes  on  the  outskirts  of  small  towns,  throughout 
the  central  and  western  part  of  New  York  state.  A  cannery 
usually  consists  of  one  central  building,  where  the  machinery 
is  supposed  to  be  located,  and  adjoining  sheds  where  the  work 
of  preparation — such  as  stringing  beans,  husking  corn,  hulling 
strawberries,  peeling  beets,  tomatoes,  etc. — is  supposed  to  be 
performed. 

On  the  whole,  the  new  strain  in  the  canning  industry  has 
come,  as  in  most  industries,  with  the  introduction  of  machin- 
ery. It  is  true  that  even  the  familiar  work  of  preparing 
fruits  and  vegetables  for  canning  has  become  more  taxing  to 
the  health  of  the  workers,  on  account  of  the  greater  speed  at 
which  it  is  done,  owing  to  the  very  low  piece-rates  paid  for 
this  work.f  But  the  main  change  since  canning  was  taken 
out  of  private  kitchens  has  been  due  to  the  machine  processes. 
Two  of  the  most  important  of  these  are  known  as  "sorting" 
and  "capping." 

For  "sorting"  vegetables,  conveyors  or  endless  moving 
bands  carry  past  the  girls  and  women  seated  or  standing  at 
the  sorting  tables,  a  ceaseless  stream  of  peas  or  beans  to  be 
picked  over  for  broken  or  spotted  vegetables,  thistle  buds, 
or  other  imperfections.     Hour  after  hour,  from  morning  until 

*  Annual  Report  of  the  Bureau  of  Factory  Inspection.  Report  on  the 
Work  of  Children  and  Women  in  Canneries.  New  Yori<  State  Department 
of  Labor,  1908. 

t  One-half  to  one  and  one-half  cents  per  pound  for  stringing  beans,  etc. 
60 


THE    NEW    STRAIN    IN    INDUSTRY 

night  (except  for  stoppages  from  breakdowns  and  irregularity 
of  supply),  the  workers'  eyes  and  attention  must  be  intent 
upon  the  moving  stream  before  them,  shoving  back  the  tide 
with  one  hand  if  it  comes  too  fast,  while  with  the  other  they 
pick  out  the  imperfections  which  must  not  be  allowed  to  pass 
into  the  cans.  The  work  is  sufficiently  easy,  so  far  as  mus- 
cular exertion  goes,  but  the  tax  upon  eyes  and  attention  is 
severe,  and  even  after  considerable  experience,  women  com- 
plain of  the  nausea  and  dizziness  resulting  from  the  monot- 
onous examination  of  the  moving  surface  of  the  conveyors. 

The  work  of  the  "cappers"  is  more  severe  than  that  of 
the  "sorters"  on  account  of  the  greater  speed  at  which  the 
conveyors  are  run.  When  the  cans  have  been  filled  with 
fruits  or  vegetables,  and  covered  with  brine  or  syrup,  they 
are  ready  to  be  hermetically  sealed.  The  conveyors  carry 
them  from  the  automatic  "filler"  to  the  sealing  or  capping 
machine.  One  to  three  "cappers"  are  employed,  who  place 
the  metal  caps  or  covers  on  the  filled  cans  in  rapid  succession 
as  they  file  past  swiftly  to  be  soldered.  The  capping  girl  sits 
close  to  the  red-hot  sealing  irons,  usually  holding  a  number  of 
caps  in  her  hand,  and  dropping  them  monotonously,  one  at  a 
time,  upon  the  cans  as  they  pass  swiftly  on  the  tireless  con- 
veyor, at  a  rate  varying  from  54  to  80  cans  per  minute.  It  is 
said  that  a  second  capper  is  usually  employed  on  machines 
operating  faster  than  60  cans  per  minute. 

The  fatigue  of  the  work  at  the  conveyors  or  sorting 
tables  is  increased  by  the  unnecessarily  constrained  and  un- 
comfortable positions  to  which  the  girls  are  subjected.  The 
tables  are  rarely  at  a  right  height  to  make  this  work  as  easy 
as  possible.  Sometimes  they  are  so  high  that  the  workers 
must  stand  all  day;  sometimes  so  low  (3  feet  from  the  ground) 
that  the  workers  cannot  sit  with  their  knees  under  the  tables, 
but  work  in  twisted  and  awkward  attitudes.  Moreover,  the 
seats  themselves  are  totally  inadequate.  According  to  the 
New  York  report,  of  about  1,400  girls  and  women  engaged  in 
sorting  peas  and  beans  at  various  factories  in  the  summer  of 
1908,  only  about  180  had  chairs  to  sit  upon.     The  others 

6i 


FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 

were  supplied  with  inadequate  boxes,  crates,  stools,  or  benches. 
During  a  long  workday,  not  infrequently  exceeding  twelve 
hours,  the  difference  between  being  comfortably  seated  at 
work  or  crouched  upon  an  improvised  support  is  self  evident. 
Yet  these  two  operations  of  "capping"  and  "sorting"  em- 
ploy more  women  in  the  canneries  than  any  other  machine 
operations.  The  New  York  report  states  that  about  1,400 
persons  were  employed  at  "sorting"  peas  and  beans  alone. 
Two  hundred  and  twenty-seven  girls  were  employed  in 
"capping"  peas,  beans,  corn,  tomatoes,  and  fruits. 

Besides  the  work  of  "sorting"  and  "capping,"  another 
machine  operation  is  highly  taxing.  This  is  feeding  the  corn 
cutters,  and  it  is  also  performed  by  women.  The  workers 
feed  ears  of  corn  into  the  cutters  at  topmost  speed. 

"It  is  very  rapid  work,"  says  the  New  York  report,* 
"the  machine  is  very  noisy,  kernels  of  corn  are  flying  every- 
where, and  everything  is  damp  and  sticky  from  the  juice  of 
the  cut  corn.  Of  the  61  women  employed  at  this  work,  41 
were  standing.  The  cutters  are  operated  at  high  speed  and 
as  'their  capacity  is  only  limited  by  the  rapidity  with  which 
the  feeder  can  place  the  ears  in  the  feeding  trough,'!  the  oper- 
ators are  expected  to  work,  and  do  work,  at  high  tension." 

Such  is  the  nature  of  the  most  important  machine  oper- 
ations at  which  women  are  employed  in  the  canneries. 

It  is  true  that  the  working  year  is  short.  Canning  is, 
perforce,  a  season  trade,  though  the  season  lasts  much  longer 
than  merely  a  few  weeks,  as  the  canners  would  have  us  sup- 
pose. In  establishments  which  can  peas,  beans,  and  corn 
only,  the  season  is  from  about  the  last  week  of  June  until 
about  the  middle  of  October;  that  is,  between  three  and  four 
months.  Canneries  where  fruit  is  packed  have  a  longer 
season:  strawberries  ripen  in  June  and  apple  packing  is  often 
carried  on  into  December,  so  that  the  season  lasts  between 
six  and  seven  months. 

*  Op.  cit.,  p.  374. 

t  "Circular  of  sales  house  distributing  one  of  the  leading  makes  of 
corn  cutters." 

62 


THE    NEW    STRAIN    IN    INDUSTRY 

Even  longer  duration  of  employment  is  reported  by  the 
latest  government  investigation  of  canning  establishments 
in  Maryland  and  California.  Agents  of  the  United  States 
Bureau  of  Labor  studied  the  conditions  of  employment  in 
both  city  and  country  canneries.  The  government  states 
that  10  Baltimore  canneries,  operated  during  twenty-nine 
to  fifty-two  weeks  in  the  year;  that  is,  between  seven 
months  and  an  entire  year.  Four  of  the  canneries  reported 
a  range  of  fifty  weeks  or  over.  Five  city  canneries  in  Cali- 
fornia varied  in  duration  of  operation,  but  four  of  the  five  had 
a  season  of  more  than  twenty-nine  weeks;  that  is,  over  seven 
months.  Four  country  canneries  in  California  varied  between 
nineteen  and  one-half  to  twenty-four  weeks  in  operation.* 

Moreover,  our  studies  in  fatigue  have  shown  us  that 
overwork  is  not  balanced  by  idleness,  when  the  physiological 
limits  have  been  over-run.  Girls  in  the  critical  period  of 
adolescence,  and  women  who  are  overstrained  during  half  the 
year,  or  even  during  a  quarter  of  the  year,  may  be  perma- 
nently wrecked  in  health.  That  they  are  so  overstrained 
has  been  shown  by  repeated  private  investigation  of  New 
York  canneries.  During  the  summer  of  1911,  women  were 
observed  working  fifteen  hours  a  day  during  successive  days. 

According  to  the  Bureau  of  Labor  Bulletin,  in  10  Balti- 
more canneries  employing  2,214  women  the  hours  of  labor 
reported  by  the  employers  themselves  include  "days  of  17>^, 
163^,  15>^  hours,  and  weeks  of  93,  9V/^  and  81  hours."t  In 
California,  the  employers  themselves  report  "days  of  18,  15 
and  13}4  hours,  and  weeks  of  96>^,  90  and  83  hours." 

In  the  cannery  occupations,  eyestrain  is  an  added  tax, 
but  in  many  kinds  of  work  it  is  the  sheer  repetition  of  unin- 
teresting samenesses  that  makes  the  work  fatiguing.  So  in 
the  making  of  paper  boxes,  the  infinite  repetition  of  me- 
chanical movements — steadying  a  strip  of  paper  in  a  box- 
covering  machine,  guiding  it  by  a  gauge  and  replacing  the 

*  Bulletin  of  the  U.  S.  Bureau  of  Labor,  No.  96,  September,  1911 
Hours  of  Women's  Work  in  Maryland  and  California,  pp.  355  and  393. 
t  Ibid.,  pp.  355  and  393. 

63 


FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 

Strip  by  another  when  it  runs  out — continues  for  ten  hours 
in  the  day,  or  longer  at  "rush"  periods.  In  a  factory  where 
hinges  are  made,  girls  spend  a  long  day's  work  putting  50 
hinges  a  minute  through  a  machine,  lifting  a  hinge  out, 
slipping  it  into  place,  replacing  it  by  another  hinge,  unvary- 
ingly — and  the  list  of  such  occupations  might  be  indefinitely 
extended. 

(b)     Shoe  Making 

Even  in  trades  which  require  highly  skilled  workers,  the 
processes  of  manufacture  are  so  subdivided,  and  are  so  re- 
duced to  the  simplest  units,  that  a  man  or  woman  spends  his 
or  her  entire  working  life  performing  over  and  over  a  frac- 
tional part — sometimes  less  than  one-hundredth — in  the 
construction  of  a  whole. 

No  trade  illustrates  better  this  minutest  subdivision  of 
work  than  the  making  of  shoes.  Ten  years  ago  the  United 
States  Industrial  Commission,  in  its  report  on  the  hours  of 
labor  in  various  industries,  took  occasion  to  mention  speci- 
fically the  greater  intensity  of  labor  "in  the  boot  and  shoe 
factories  where  the  operator  is  required  to  handle  thousands  of 
pieces  in  a  day  and  guide  them  through  the  machine."  In 
the  decade  which  has  passed  since  this  was  written,  the 
speed  and  subdivision  of  work  at  shoe  machinery  have  been 
greatly  increased.  We  may  obtain  an  idea  of  the  extraordi- 
nary specialization  in  this  trade  at  present  when  we  learn  that 
a  well-built  shoe  has  passed  through  the  hands  of  about  100 
workers  and  through  the  operations  of  about  60  different 
kinds  of  shoe  making  machinery.*  These  figures  do  not 
include  the  workers  in  the  stitching  room,  where  a  separate 
force  sews  together,  on  specially  constructed  sewing  machines, 
the  pieces  of  leather  and  lining  which  make  up  the  so-called 
"uppers."  From  the  stitching  room,  the  flat,  sewed  uppers 
are  sent  to  the  making  or  "bottoming"  room,  where  they  are 
shaped  over  lasts  fastened  to  the  soles,  and  made  up  into  the 
forms  which  we  recognize  as  shoes. 

*  Goodyear  Welt  Shoes,  How  They  Are  Made.  United  Shoe  Machinery 
Co.,  Boston,  1909,  p.  11. 

64 


THE    NEW    STRAIN    IN    INDUSTRY 

Of  all  these  machines  and  operations  which  go  into  the 
making  of  shoes,  we  will  examine  two  a  little  more  closely. 
The  first  of  these  is  the  "upper  trimming"  machine,  through 
which  the  shoe  passes  on  its  way  to  completion. 

The  stitched  upper  has  already  been  pulled  over  the 
wooden  last,  which  gives  the  shoe  its  shape,  by  an  extra- 
ordinarily ingenious  machine  that  pulls  the  leather  with 
pincers  evenly  and  tightly  down  over  the  last,  driving  in  a 
tack  at  every  pull,  so  as  to  hold  the  upper  exactly  in  place  on 
the  last.  In  pulling  the  leather  over  the  bottom  edge  of  the 
last,  there  is  naturally  a  surplus  amount  of  leather  left  at 
the  rounded  toes  and  some  along  the  sides  of  the  shoe.  This 
is  "crimpled"  or  fulled  in  against  the  insole.  Now  the 
trimming  machine,  which  we  are  considering,  trims  off  this 
surplus  leather  fulled  in  at  the  toes  and  side,  so  as  to  make 
the  bottom  as  smooth  as  possible  before  the  sole  is  sewed  on. 
The  trimming  machine  consists  of  a  sharp  knife  edge,  operat- 
ing constantly  against  a  sharp  edged  revolving  top.  The 
man  who  works  the  machine  stands,  holding  upside  down 
somewhat  below  the  level  of  his  eyes,  the  partly  made,  still 
unsoled  shoe.  He  turns  it  skilfully  and  rapidly  on  the  re- 
volving top,  against  whose  sharp  edge  the  second  knife-blade 
operates,  cutting  off  all  the  surplus  crimpled  leather.  The 
work  is  extremely  rapid  and  absolutely  uniform.  But  it 
takes  skill  and  close  attention.  The  machine  could  easily 
cut  off  too  much,  or  could  cut  into  the  upper,  if  the  swift 
handling  of  the  shoe  were  not  exactly  correct.  The  work- 
man must  be  skilled,  but  all  that  constitutes  his  work  is 
daily  to  revolve  in  his  two  hands  about  2600  pairs  of  shoes, 
or  5200  single  shoes.  The  expert  workers  are  able  to  trim 
off  that  number  of  uppers  daily  in  this  machine.  It  is  not 
surprising  that  such  monotony  of  occupation  should  be  a 
factor  in  fatigue.  For  the  work  is  unvaried.  The  man  who 
operates  the  upper  trimmer  does  nothing  else.  His  skill  and 
speed  have  been  acquired  by  the  extremest  specialization.  He 
performs,  perhaps,  less  than  one-hundredth  part  in  the  making 
of  a  single  shoe,  and  he  does  not  know  how  to  operate,  or 
5  65 


FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 

would  be  extremely  awkward  at,  the  machine  next  him  which 
performs  a  different  hundredth  fraction  of  the  manufacture. 

This  is  men's  work  in  shoe  making.  The  next  example 
is  women's  work.  It  is  the  operation  of  the  new  eyelet- 
ting  machines,  which  move  with  what  the  makers  rightly  de- 
scribe as  "  bewildering  rapidity."  The  girl  who  operates  this 
machine  sits  in  front  of  it,  guiding  the  flat  sewn  uppers, 
which  are  to  have  eyelets  punched  into  them,  somewhat  as 
she  would  guide  the  material  in  a  sewing  machine.  She 
adjusts  levers  and  various  mechanical  contrivances  to  regu- 
late the  speed  and  spacing  of  the  eyelets.  Women  maintain 
that  they  can  work  faster  than  men  at  this  machine,  because 
they  can  keep  a  supply  of  uppers  ready  in  their  laps,  while 
men  are  obliged  to  keep  their  supply  of  uppers  next  to  them 
and  have  to  make  an  extra  motion  of  the  arm  to  pick  them 
up.  The  output  of  the  machine  varies  according  to  the 
spacing  of  the  eyelets.  Men's  shoes,  which  have  only  four 
or  five  evenly  spaced  holes,  naturally  go  more  quickly  than 
women's,  which  have  often  as  many  as  12  holes  irregularly 
spaced.  An  expert  worker  at  the  eyeletting  machine  can 
finish  2000  pairs  of  ladies'  shoes  in  one  day,  although  this 
amount,  like  that  given  above,  is  probably  20  per  cent  higher 
than  the  average  worker's  output.*  Again,  the  work  is 
skilled,  extremely  swift,  and  monotonous.  The  workers  do 
not  have  the  opportunity  of  relaxing  the  particular  kind 
of  attention  which  their  machine  requires,  for  each  one  is  a 
specialist  in  her  own  fractional  field  only.  It  is  the  acme  of 
subdivision. 

Astonishing  as  are  the  material  results  in  output,  this 
minute  division  of  labor  and  the  unrelieved  monotony  of  work 
which  it  brings  must  be  counted  in  any  effort  to  appraise  the 
new  strain  of  industry.  Not  machine  workers  only,  mere 
feeders  of  larger  automata,  but  hand  workers  too,  suffer  from 
the  blight  of  monotony.  The  girls  and  women  who  pack  the 
innumerable  small  objects  which  must  be  wrapped  before 

*  Statement  in  a  letter  from  a  representative  of  the  United  Shoe 
Machinery  Co.,  March  4,   1912. 

66 


THE    NEW    STRAIN    IN    INDUSTRY 

they  reach  the  retail  stores — such  as  all  sorts  of  glass  objects, 
lamps,  crackers,  candy,  and  other  food-stuffs — have  an  oc- 
cupation of  unrelieved  monotony.  It  requires  no  more  judg- 
ment or  skill  than  to  feed  a  machine,  only  speed  and  the 
indefinite  repetition  of  dull,  mechanical  movements. 

3.  PHYSIOLOGY  OF  MONOTONY 
It  goes  without  saying  that  monotony  of  work,  of  which 
these  are  random  examples,  cannot  be  avoided  in  our  in- 
dustries. It  is  a  part  of  their  development,  and  even  when 
ingenious  machines  are  invented  to  do  work  previously  done 
by  hand,  the  running  and  feeding  of  such  machines  often 
provides  only  another  form  of  monotonous  work  for  the 
human  agent.  With  subdivision,  and  the  loss  of  craftman- 
ship,  monotony  of  work  in  greater  or  less  degree  is  inevit- 
able, and  may  well  be  accepted  as  such.  For  when  once 
monotony  is  recognized  as  a  real  hardship,  and  as  in  itself 
a  source  of  fatigue,  rational  means  of  relieving  it  may  be 
sought,  in  shortening  hours  of  monotonous  labor  and  alter- 
nating work  of  different  kinds.  An  interesting  example 
is  given  by  a  German  factory  inspector  of  excessive  fatigue 
resulting  from  light,  but  monotonous,  work  on  corset  steels, 
which  was  relieved  by  periodical  changes  of  work  for  the 
employes  in  question.*  Enlightened  employers  in  various 
industries  have  found  such  alternations  of  work  practically 
beneficial  in  stemming  fatigue. 

From  our  physiological  point  of  view,  this  is  entirely 
logical,  because  the  strain  of  monotony  is  not  due  merely  to 
the  distaste  for  work  and  the  aversion  it  engenders.  Monot- 
ony of  occupation  is  a  true  factor  in  inducing  fatigue,  because 
it  has  a  true  physiological  basis,  which  can  briefly  be  made 
clear.  We  know  that  with  repetition  and  sameness  of  use 
there  results  continuous  fatigue  of  the  muscle  or  organ  used. 
So,  too,  with  the  nerve  centers  from  which  our  motive  power 

*  Quoted  by  Dr.  Emil  Roth.  Ermijdung  durch  Berufsarbeit.  Four- 
teenth International  Congress  of  Hygiene  and  Demography,  Berlin,  1907, 
Vol.  H,  Sec.   IV,  p.  614. 

67 


FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 

springs.  We  must  bear  in  mind  that  the  special  functions  of 
the  brain  have  separate  centers.  Thus,  there  is  a  center  for 
hearing,  another  for  sight,  another  for  speech,  etc.  When  cer- 
tain centers  are  working  continuously,  monotonously,  from 
morning  to  night,  day  by  day  and  week  by  week,  it  is  physiolog- 
ically inevitable  that  they  should  tire  more  easily  than  when 
work  is  sufficiently  varied  to  call  upon  other  centers  in  turn. 

The  monotony  of  so-called  light  and  easy  work  may  thus 
be  more  damaging  to  the  organism  than  heavier  work  which 
gives  some  chance  for  variety,  some  outlet  for  our  innate  re- 
volt against  unrelieved  repetitions.  Monotony  often  inflicts 
more  injury  than  greater  muscular  exertion  just  because 
it  requires  continuous  recurring  work  from  nerve  centers, 
fatigue  of  which,  as  we  have  seen,  reacts  with  such  disastrous 
consequences  upon  our  total  life  and  health.  The  evils  of 
monotony  illustrate  again  how  closely  all  the  functions  of  our 
life  are  bound  up  together;  how  the  ph>'sical  and  nervous 
and  psychic  parts  of  us  react  and  interact  upon  one  another. 
Aversion  from  a  monotonous  grind  of  work,  the  effort  of  the 
will  to  "keep  up,"  requires  just  so  much  more  nervous  stim- 
ulus from  already  tired  nerve  centers. 

4.    NOISE 

In  both  the  needle  and  textile  trades,  which  we  have 
taken  as  types  of  work  involving  speed  and  complexity, 
fatigue  is  the  more  quickly  induced  by  other  attendant  in- 
fluences which  are  common  to  most  machine  work.  One  of 
these  fatiguing  influences  is  the  noise  of  the  machinery. 

The  fatiguing  effect  of  the  roar  of  machinery  is  chiefly 
due  to  its  influence  upon  the  faculty  of  attention.  Mental 
fatigue  is  "characterized  pre-eminently  by  a  weakening  of 
the  powers  of  attention."*  Voluntary  attention  is  essentially 
a  selective  process,  a  "focalization  and  concentration  of  con- 
sciousness"! upon  one  thing  or  a  few  from  among  the  multi- 

*  Lee,  op.  cit.     Harvey  Lectures,  1905-06,  p.  180. 
t  James,  William:   The  Principles  of  Psychology.     Advanced  Course, 
p.  426.     New  York,  Henry  Holt  and  Co.,  1899. 

68 


THE    NEW    STRAIN    IN    INDUSTRY 

plicities,  physical  and  mental,  in  whose  midst  we  live.  There 
is  thus  in  attention  a  sensation  of  effort,  and  fatigue  of  at- 
tention is  in  direct  proportion  to  the  continuance  of  the  efforts 
and  the  difficulty  of  sustaining  them.  Now,  under  the  in- 
fluence of  loud  noise,  attention  is  distracted  and  the  difficulty 
of  sustaining  it  increased. 

The  term  reaction  time,  as  is  well  known,  is  used  for  the 
minute  interval  between  the  occurrence  of  some  external 
phenomenon  and  the  signal  of  its  having  been  perceived  by 
any  given  individual.  This  interval  is,  as  a  rule,  almost 
infinitesimal.  It  is  counted  in  hundred-thousandths  of  a 
second,  yet  individuals  differ  markedly  in  the  speed  of  their 
reactions.  In  laboratory  experiments  these  infinitesimal 
differences  are  exactly  measured  by  the  use  of  Hipps'  chro- 
nometer, a  stop  watch  constructed  to  mark  the  thousandth 
part  of  a  second.  The  laboratory  experiments  confirm  what 
we  know  from  everyday  life,  that  attention  increases,  and 
fatigue  of  attention  decreases,  our  promptitude  of  reaction. 
Thus  in  a  game  of  tennis,  for  instance,  or  in  any  sport  where 
the  reaction  must  be  instant,  we  fail  to  make  prompt  returns 
as  soon  as  attention  is  in  any  way  distracted  and  we  are  off 
guard.  Measured  by  the  chronometer,  most  people  take 
about  134  thousandths  of  a  second  before  responding  with 
the  hand  to  a  touch  on  the  foot,  but  fatigue  of  the  attention 
may  double  the  length  of  this  reaction,  prolonging  the  in- 
terval to  as  much  as  250  thousandths  of  a  second. 

Now,  further  laboratory  study  shows  how  noise,  like 
fatigue,  retards  the  time  of  reaction.  Mosso  quotes*  an 
experiment  which  showed  that  when  an  organ  was  played,^ 
reaction  time  was  increased  from  100  thousandths  of  a  second 
to  144  thousandths,  before  the  subject  of  the  experiment 
showed  that  he  felt  a  touch  upon  his  left  hand.  This  retar- 
dation took  place  in  spite  of  a  greater  intensity  of  atten- 
tion, and  whenever  the  disturbing  sound  ceased,  the  time 
of  physiological  reaction  became  as  before.  James  quotes 
more  careful,  detailed  studies  of  Wundt  which  disclose  the 
*  Mosso,  Angelo:    La  Fatica.     English  translation,  pp.  204  and  205. 

69 


FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 

same  kind  of  retardation  in  reaction  through  the  influence  of 
disturbing  noise.* 

*  James,  William,  op.  cit.,  pp.  427-432. 

"Under  this  head,  the  shortening  of  reaction-time,  there  is  a  good  deal 
to  be  said  of  attention's  effects.  Since  Wundt  has  probably  worked  over 
the  subject  more  thoroughly  than  any  other  investigator  and  made  it  pecu- 
liarly his  own,  what  follows  had  better,  as  far  as  possible,  be  in  his  words. 

'  I  made  experiments  in  which  the  principal  impression,  or  signal  for 
reaction,  was  a  bell-stroke  whose  strength  could  be  graduated  by  a  spring 
against  the  hammer  with  a  movable  counterpoise.  Each  set  of  observations 
comprised  two  series,  in  one  of  which  the  bell-stroke  was  registered  in  the 
ordinary  way,  whilst  in  the  other  a  toothed  wheel  belonging  to  the  chrono- 
metric  apparatus  made  during  the  entire  experiment  a  steady  noise  against 
a  metal  spring.  In  one-half  of  the  latter  series  (A)  the  bell-stroke  was  only 
moderately  strong,  so  that  the  accompanying  noise  diminished  it  consider- 
ably, without,  however,  making  it  indistinguishable.  In  the  other  half  (B) 
the  bell-sound  was  so  loud  as  to  be  heard  with  perfect  distinctness  above 
the  noise. 


A  [  Without   noise 

(Bell-stroke      ] 
moderate)        [  With  noise .... 


(Bell-stroke 
loud) 


( Without    noise 
With  noise 


Mean 


0.189 
0.313 
0.158 
0.203 


Maximum  Minimum 


0.244 
0.499 
0.206 
0.295 


0.156 
0.183 
0.133 
0.140 


No.  of  Ex- 
periments 


21 
16 
20 
19 


'Since,  in  these  experiments,  the  sound  B  even  with  noise  made  a 
considerably  stronger  impression  than  the  sound  A  without,  we  must  see 
in  the  figures  a  direct  influence  of  the  disturbing  noise  on  the  process  of 
reaction.  This  influence  is  treed  from  mixture  with  other  factors  when  the 
momentary  stimulus  and  the  concomitant  disturbance  appeal  to  different 
senses.  1  chose,  to  test  this,  sight  and  hearing.  The  momentary  signal  was 
an  induction-spark  leaping  from  one  platinum  point  to  another  against  a 
dark  background.     The  steady  stimulation  was  the  noise  above  described. 

No.  of 
Spark  Mean  Maximum 

Without  noise. . .  .0.222  0.284 

With  noise 0.300  0.390 

'When  one  reflects  that  in  the  experiments  with  one  and  the  same 
sense  the  relative  intensity  of  the  signal  is  always  depressed  (which  by  itself 
is  a  retarding  condition)  the  amount  of  retardation  in  these  last  observations 
makes  it  probable  that  the  disturbing  influence  upon  attention  is  greater  when 
the  stimuli  are  disparate  than  when  they  belong  to  the  same  sense.  One  does 
not,  in  fact,  fmd  it  particularly  hard  to  register  immediately,  when  the  bell 
rings  in  the  midst  of  the  noise;  but  when  the  spark  is  the  signal  one  has 
the  feeling  of  being  coerced,  as  one  turns  away  from  the  noise  towards  it.' " 
(Wundt.  Physiol.  Psych..  2nd  ed.  11,  pp.  241-5.) 

70 


inimum 

Experiments 

0.158 

20 

0.250 

18 

THE    NEW    STRAIN    IN    INDUSTRY 

Thus,  noise  not  only  distracts  attention  but  necessitates 
a  greater  exertion  of  intensity  or  conscious  application, 
thereby  hastening  the  onset  of  fatigue  of  the  attention.  A 
quite  uncounted  strain  upon  this  easily  fatigued  faculty  re- 
sults among  industrial  workers,  such  as  girl  machine  opera- 
tors, when  the  deafening  intermittent  roar  of  highly  speeded 
machinery  adds  its  quota  to  the  tax  of  a  long  day's  work. 
The  roar  is  not  even  continuous  enough  to  sink  into  monot- 
ony. With  each  stoppage  and  starting  of  a  machine,  it 
bursts  out  irregularly. 

The  subject  of  noise  in  industrial  establishments  is 
usually  dismissed  with  the  remark  that  the  workers  "get 
used  to  it,"  and  doubtless,  in  many  occupations,  the  workers 
themselves  are  scarcely,  or  not  at  all,  conscious  of  any  in- 
creased application  on  their  part,  due  to  the  noise.  But,  in 
the  main,  the  process  of  getting  used  to  it  involves  precisely 
that  increased  intensity  of  nervous  effort,  that  "feeling  of 
being  coerced,"  of  which  Wundt  speaks  in  the  laboratory 
experiments,  and  which,  as  we  have  seen,  is  most  favorable 
for  the  approach  of  exhaustion. 


5.     FATIGUE  AND  INDUSTRIAL  ACCIDENTS 

Fatigue  of  the  attention  and  lack  of  muscular  control  are 
important  in  another  connection  hitherto  little  regarded.  It 
has  been  shown  to  play  a  subtle  part  in  the  occurrence  of 
industrial  accidents.  The  statistics  of  all  countries  which 
have  recorded  the  hours  at  which  such  injuries  occur  prove 
that,  other  things  being  equal,  the  accidents  increase  pro- 
gressively up  to  a  certain  time  in  the  morning  and  again  in 
afternoon  work. 

In  estimating  the  accidents  of  working  people,  we  are  too 
much  accustomed  to  dwell  only  upon  the  concrete  objects  of 
danger,  such  as  the  unguarded  machinery,  or  the  prodigious 
size  and  weight  and  speed  of  industry's  mechanisms;  or  the 
atmospheric  conditions  of  work  such  as  intense  heat  and 
glare,  or  cold  and  dark,  and  the  like.     But  besides  all  these 

71 


FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 

external  factors  and  their  effects,  we  must  reckon  with  the 
human  subject  himself,  and  the  reason  why,  among  so  many 
ever-present  chances  of  danger,  so  many  are  escaped  as  well 
as  succumbed  to. 

Here,  again,  the  causes  of  immunity  or  the  reverse  can- 
not easily  be  isolated.  The  worker's  total  makeup, — his 
coolness,  his  experience,  his  native  quickness  of  reaction,  his 
state  of  being,  physical  and  mental,  taken  as  a  whole,  deter- 
mine his  chances.  Yet  we  know  that  even  in  the  healthiest 
organism  the  products  of  fatigue  accumulate  with  progressive 
hours  of  work;  we  know  that  our  promptitude  of  reaction 
rises  and  falls  with  the  freshness  of  our  attention;  that  noth- 
ing is  more  potent  than  fatigue  to  increase  reaction  time  and 
develop  muscular  inaccuracies. 

Hence,  when  we  find  the  number  and  ratio  of  accidents 
increasing  up  to  a  certain  point  with  each  successive  hour  of 
work  during  the  morning,  falling  towards  zero  at  the  noon 
hour  and  again  rising  to  a  maximum  in  the  afternoon,  it  is 
reasonable  to  ascribe  the  increase  in  large  part  to  the  effects 
of  fatigue,  direct  and  indirect. 

In  a  general  way,  the  increase  of  accidents  late  in  the 
day  has  long  been  known.  These  "melancholy  details" 
were  urged  as  arguments  for  shortening  the  workday  by  Lord 
Shaftesbury  and  the  earliest  English  reformers.*  But  it  has 
been  only  within  comparatively  recent  years  that  any  sta- 
tistics on  the  hours  of  incidence  have  become  available.  The 
data  from  various  states  and  countries  are  not  in  complete 
accord  and  show  various  discrepancies.  The  statistics 
quoted  below  should  be  regarded  merely  as  initial  studies. 
Yet  they  are  significant,  notwithstanding  their  defects, 
because  they  reveal  tendencies  too  uniform  and  consistent 
to  be  the  work  of  chance. 

The  most  valuable  and  complete  statistics  come  from 
Germany,  the  first  country  to  adopt,  in  1884,  a  comprehen- 
sive system  of  accident  compensation  on  a  national  scale. 
Germany  was  one  of  the  first  nations  to  require  that  the  hours 

*  Hansard's  Parliamentary  Debates.     3rd  Series.     March  15,  1844. 

72 


THE    NEW    STRAIN    IN    INDUSTRY 

of  the  incidence  of  accidents  be  reported.  The  Imperial  In- 
surance Office  has  made  a  practice  of  publishing,  at  ten-year 
intervals,  special  studies  of  industrial  accidents  for  which 
compensation  has  been  paid  to  working  people  under  the 
national  accident  insurance  system.  Such  investigations 
were  made  for  the  industrial  insurance  associations  in  1887, 
1897,  and  1907.  The  following  table  shows  that  during  the 
year  1887  the  highest  accident  rate,  for  all  industries,  oc- 
curred between  ten  and  twelve  in  the  morning  and  between 
five  and  six  in  the  afternoon.* 


NUMBER  AND  PER  CENT  OF  ACCIDENTS  DURING  THE  YEAR  1887, 
BY   HOUR   OF   THE    DAY    (gERMANY) 


Accidents 

Hours 

Accidents 

Hours 

Number 

Per  Cent 

Number 

Per  Cent 

Morning 

Afternoon 

6  to    7  ... 

435 

2.82 

12  tol... 

587 

3.81 

7  to    8... 

794 

5.16 

1  to  2... 

745 

4.84 

8  to    9... 

815 

5.29 

2  to  3... 

1037 

6.73 

9  to  10  . . . 

1069 

6.94 

3  to  4... 

1243 

8.07 

lOtoll  ... 

1598 

10.37 

4  to  5... 

1178 

7.65 

11  to  12  . . . 

1590 

10.31 

5  to  6. . . 

1306 

8.48 

The  latest  German  statistics  give  the  number  of  hours 
worked  by  injured  persons  on  the  days  of  their  accidents, f 
and  show  that  the  accident  rate  is  highest  during  the  fourth 
and  fifth  hours  of  morning  work.| 

*  Quoted  from  the  Amtliche  Nachrichten  des  Reichs-Versicherungs- 
amts,  1890,  in  the  24th  Annual  Report  of  the  United  States  Commissioner 
of  Labor.  Workmen's  Insurance  and  Compensation  Systems  in  Europe, 
Vol.  I,  p.  1134. 

t  Amtliche  Nachrichten  des  Reichs-Versicherungsamts,  1910.  I. 
Beiheft  I.  Teil.  Gewerbe-Unfallstatistik  fiir  das  Jahr  1907,  pp.  329-335. 
Bulletin  of  the  United  States  Bureau  of  Labor  No.  92,  Jan.,  1911.  Harris, 
Henry  J.,  Ph.  D.:  Industrial  Accidents  and  Loss  of  Earning  Power:  Ger- 
many's Experiences  in  1897  and  1907,  p.  50. 

J  See  table  on  next  page.  It  has  been  suggested  that  the  German 
custom  of  allowing  about  15  minutes  for  afternoon  lunch  (Vesperpause)  at  4 
o'clock  or  later  is  responsible  for  the  decrease  beginning  with  the  eighth  hour 
of  work.     See  Harris,  Henry  J.,  op.  cit.,  p.  49. 

73 


FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 

NUMBER  AND  PER  CENT  OF  PERSONS  INJURED  OR  KILLED 
DURING  THE  YEAR  1907,  BY  NUMBER  OF  HOURS  OF  WORK 
ON    THE    DAY    OF    THE    ACCIDENT    (GERMANY) 


Number  of 

Hours  Injured 
i  been  at  IVork 

All  Industries 

ETC. 

Persons  hac 

Number  Reported 

Per  Cent 

Less  than  1 

3,939 
6,885 
7,351 
9,004 
9,739 
8,106 
6,462 
6,908 
6,817 
6,041 
8,539 

4.94 

1  to    2 

8.63 

2  to    3 

9.21 

3  to    4 

11.28 

4  to    5 

12.20 

5  to    6 

10.16 

6  to    7 

8.10 

7  to    8 

8.66 

8  to    9 

8.54 

9  to  10 

7.57 

10  and  over 

10.71 

Total 

79,791 

100.00 

In  France,  too,  the  distribution  by  hours,  of  accidents 
occurring  among  French  workmen,  has  been  studied.  Be- 
tween 1904  and  1907,  Professor  Imbert  of  the  University  of 
MontpeHer,  in  conjunction  with  French  factory  inspectors, 
investigated  accidents  occurring  in  sundry  occupations  such 
as  the  building  trades,  metal  and  wood-working  trades. 
They  also  showed  graphically  the  hours  of  accidents  occur- 
ring among  140,407  workers  affected  during  the  year  1903 
by  the  French  accident  compensation  law.*  In  all  these 
studies  the  general  features  of  the  curves  were  the  same. 
The  summit  was  reached  between  10  and  11  a.  m.  and 
again  between  4  and  5  p.  m. 

Similar  studies  showing  similar  results  were  published  in 
1907,  by  the  Belgian  factory  inspectorsf  and  by  two  Italian 

*  Revue  Scientifique,  4e  Juin,  1904.  Ibid.,  24=  Septembre,  1904.  Ibid., 
21e  Octobre,  1905.   Bulletin  de  1'  I  nspection  du  Travail   Fasc.  3^.  Paris,  1906. 

t  Floyaume  de  Belgique.  Rapports  Annuels  de  I' Inspection  du  Tra- 
vail, 1907.  p.  206. 

74 


THE    NEW    STRAIN    IN    INDUSTRY 


physicians  who  investigated  more  than  5,000  accidents 
occurring  in  machine  shops  of  ItaHan  railroads  during  a 
period  of  four  years.* 

So  far  as  concerns  the  United  States  the  study  of  work 
injuries  has  been  so  much  belated  that  the  significance  of  their 
times  of  incidence  has  not  been  noted  until  very  recently.  As 
late  as  the  year  1909  the  writer  was  unable  to  learn  of  any 
American  investigations  into  this  subject.  Since  then  sev- 
eral have  appeared.  In  its  report  for  the  year  1909-10, 
the  Wisconsin  Bureau  of  Labor  published  a  brief  table  of 
accidents,  according  to  their  distribution  by  hours. f 

Some  unpublished  accident  statistics  of  the  Illinois 
State  Department  of  Factory  Inspection  for  the  year  1910 

NUMBER  OF  ACCIDENTS   DURING  THE  YEAR   1910,    BY  HOUR  OF 
THE   DAY    (ILLINOIS) 


Morning 

Accidents 

Afternoon 

Accidents 

7  to    7  :59 

79 

1  tol  :59 

111 

8  to    8  :59 

120 

2  to  2  :  59 

156 

9  to    9  :59 

193 

3  to  3  :  59 

227 

10  to  10  :  59 

246 

4  to  4  :  59 

260 

11  toll  :  59 

257 

5  to  5  :  59 

145 

12  to  12  :  59 

49 

Other  hours 

289 

were  quoted  in  a  recent  study  of  industrial  accidents  in  the 
American  Journal  of  Sociology. %  The  author  states  that  of 
the  accident  reports  examined,  2,687  gave  a  fairly  accurate 
description  of  what  had  happened  preceding  the  accidents, 
and  of  these,  2,203  or  82.2  per  cent  "conceivably  might  have 
been  avoided  if  the  injured,  or  the  fellow  servant  who  was  the 

*  II  Ramaiiini.  Giornale  Italiano  di  Medicina  Sociale.  Anno.  I. 
Fasc.  10-11.  Oct.,  1907.  Pieraccini,  Prof.  G.,  and  Maffei,  Dr.  R.  (R. 
Arcispedale  di  S.  M.  Nuova,  Firenze):  Le  stagioni,  i  giorni,  le  ore  nel  deter- 
minismo  degli  infortuni  del  lavoro. 

t  14th  Biennial  Report  of  the  Wisconsin  Bureau  of  Labor  and  Indus- 
trial Statistics.     1909-1910.     Part  II,  p.  78. 

t  Bogardus,  Emery  S.:  The  Relation  of  Fatigue  to  Industrial  Acci- 
dents. American  Journal  of  Sociology,  University  of  Chicago  Press.  Volume 
XVII,  Nos.  2,  3,  and  4.  (September  and  November,  1911,  and  January, 
1912.) 

75 


FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 


NUMBER  AND   PER  CENT  OF   ACCIDENTS   BY  HOUR  OF  THE   DAY 

(United  States — Some  Comparative  Statistics) 


Cotton  Mills 

Metal-works 

Hours 

126  Mills  1  Year 

1  Mill  8  Years 

Total 

No.  ac- 
cidents 

Per  cent 

No.  ac- 
cidents 

Per  cent 

No.  ac- 
cidents 

Per  cent 

6       to    7  a.  m 

73 

6.19 

63 

8.22 

7.01  to    8  a.  m 

95 

8.05 

68 

8.88 

486 

7.81 

8  01  to    9  a.  m 

126 

10.68 

82 

10.71 

677 

10.87 

9.01  to  10  a.  m 

161 

13.64 

90 

11.75 

860 

13.81 

10.01  to  11  a.  m 

128 

10.85 

114 

14.88 

763 

12.25 

11.01  to  12  m 

78 

6.61 

43 

5.61 

491 

7.89 

12.01  to    1  p.  m 

58 

4.92 

9 

1.18 

241 

3.87 

1.01  to    2  p.  m 

78 

6.61 

63 

8.22 

602 

9.67 

2.01  to    3  p.  m 

98 

8.30 

67 

8.75 

676 

10.86 

3.01  to    4  p.  m 

126 

10.68 

77 

10.05 

716 

11.50 

4.01  to    5  p.  m 

90 

7.63 

57 

7.44 

511 

8.21 

5.01  to    6  p.  m 

59 

5.00 

33 

4.31 

203 

3.26 

6.01  to    7  p.  m 

7 

.59 

7.01  to    8  p.  m 

3 

.25 

Total 

1,180 

100.00 

766 

100.00 

6,226 

100.00 

General  Manufacture 

Grand  Total 

Hours 

Indiana  3  Years 

iVisconsin 

No.  ac- 
cidents 

Per  cent 

No.  ac- 
cidents 

Per  cent 

No.  ac- 
cidents 

Per  cent 

6      to    7  a.  m 

7.01  to    8  a.  m 

8.01  to    9  a.  m 

9.01  to  10  a.  m 

10.01  to  11  a.  m 

11.01  to  12  m 

12.01  to    1  p.  m 

1.01  to    2  p.  m 

2.01  to    3  p.  m 

3.01  to    4  p.  m 

4.01  to    5  p.  m 

5.01  to  6  p.  m 

6.01  to    7  p.  m 

7.01  to    8p.  m 

546 
492 
603 
469 
338 

183 

441 
481 
598 
480 
197 

11.31 

10.19 

12.49 

9.71 

7.00 

3.79 

9.13 
9.97 
12.38 
9.95 
4.08 

"76 
126 
227 
245 
208 

49 

126 
213 
240 

229 
151 

402 

6.67 

12.01 

12.96 

11.00 

2.59 

6.67 
11.27 
12.70 
12.12 

7.99 

136 
1,271 
1,503 
1.941 

1,719 
1,158 

540 

1,310 

1,535 

1.757 

1,367 

643 

7 

3 

0.91 

8.53 
10.09 
13.04 
11.54 

7.78 

3.63 

8.80 
10.31 
11.80 

9.18 

4.32 

.05 

.02 

Total 

4,828 

100.00 

1,890 

100.00 

14,890 

100.00 

76 


THE    NEW    STRAIN    IN    INDUSTRY 

cause  of  the  accident  in  some  cases,  had  had  accurate  muscu- 
lar control."  Of  the  2,203  accidents  which  might  have  been 
avoided,  the  time  was  given  at  which  2,162  had  occurred,  and 
again  showed  the  summit  of  the  accident  curve  between  10 
and  12  o'clock  in  the  morning  and  4  and  5  in  the  afternoon. 

The  federal  investigation  of  wage-earning  women  and 
children  includes  a  study  of  accidents  among  about  14,000 
metal  workers,  male  and  female,  and  more  than  75,000  cotton 
mill  workers.  For  purposes  of  comparison  it  includes  the 
Wisconsin  table  and  some  unpublished  statistics  from  the 
Indiana  Bureau  of  Factory  Inspection.  "Here,"  says  the 
report,*  "  are  four  sets  of  figures,  collected  by  different  agencies 
in  different  parts  of  the  Union  at  different  times  and  covering 
different  industries,  each  agency  working  independently  of 
the  others.  Yet  the  figures  thus  gathered  show  ,  ,  .  strik- 
ing similarity."  Omitting  the  hour  from  6  to  7  a.  m.,  the 
accident  rate  is  shown  to  be  highest  during  the  third  and 
fourth  hours  of  work. 

Such,  in  brief,  is  the  testimony  of  the  statistics.  It  is 
true  that  most  of  these  studies  of  accidents  are  open  to  various 
criticisms.  They  are  not  sufficiently  full  and  specific  to  be 
scientifically  accurate.  They  do  not  state  the  actual  number 
of  workers  employed  at  each  hour  of  the  day.  More  workers 
are  employed  at  some  hours  than  at  others;  hence  the  in- 
creased number  of  accidents  during  the  third  and  fourth  hours 
of  the  morning  or  afternoon  may  be  due  to  the  presence  of  a 
larger  working  force.  In  that  case  the  number  of  accidents 
would  necessarily  be  heightened. 

The  question  has  also  been  raised  why,  if  fatigue  is  a 
primary  cause  for  these  accidents,  their  number  is  not  great- 
est during  the  last  hour  of  the  morning  and  of  the  afternoon? 
If  it  is  the  workers'  exhaustion  which  inclines  them  to  these 
hazards,  why  does  it  not  do  so  most  when  they  are  presum- 
ably most  fatigued? 

*  Senate  Document  No.  645,  61st  Congress,  Second  Session,  1911. 
Report  on  Condition  of  Woman  and  Child  Wage-Earners  in  the  United 
States,  Vol.  XI,  pp.  96-97.     See  table  on  p.  76. 

77 


FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 

To  this  objection  there  are  several  conclusive  replies. 
In  the  first  place,  the  variation  in  the  lunch  hour  in  different 
establishments  lessens  the  number  of  persons  at  work  between 
eleven  and  one  o'clock.*  So,  also,  variations  in  "quitting 
time"  and  the  smaller  number  of  persons  at  work  between 
five  and  six,  go  toward  explaining  the  usually  smaller  num- 
ber of  accidents  which  occur  at  that  time.  Moreover,  some 
familiar  psychological  phenomena  help  further  to  explain 
the  smaller  number  of  accidents  during  the  first  and  last 
hours  of  morning  and  afternoon  employment.  It  is  well 
known  that  the  first  period  of  work  is  one  of  "limbering  up," 
when  the  worker  has  not  yet  reached  his  normal  plane  of 
efficiency  or  production.  During  the  last  hour  of  work,  also, 
with  increasing  fatigue,  the  rate  naturally  falls.  In  a  sub- 
sequent chapter  we  shall  observe,  from  actual  experiments, 
how  markedly  the  productivity  and  output  drop  during  the 
last  hours  of  the  morning  and  afternoon. 

Now  this  lower  rate  of  activity,  due  to  complex  causes, 
is  in  all  probability  a  highly  important  factor  in  the  reduced 
accident  rate  during  the  first  and  last  hours  of  the  morning 
and  afternoon.  It  is  well  known  that  operations  requiring 
increased  speed  tend  to  produce  a  heightened  accident  rate, 
and  the  reverse  is  as  true.  With  the  slackening  of  speed  and 
production,  therefore,  it  is  natural  for  the  accident  rate  to 
fall.  Thus  the  effects  of  fatigue  upon  the  accident  rate  are 
both  direct  and  indirect.  As  the  American  report  acutely 
says:t 

"It  is  evident  that  in  the  interrelation  of  influences 
acting  upon  the  situation  now  one  and  now  another  may  be 
dominant.  The  most  constant  factor  will  be  fatigue.  It 
will  be  present  in  varying  proportion  in  every  case.  It 
may  act  with  the  tendency  to  increase  speed  to  produce 

*  "  In  one  Chicago  plant  employing  about  3,000  men  and  women,  the 
writer  found  that  practically  one-half  of  this  number  took  their  lunch  from 
11  :30  to  12.  Frequently  the  employees  begin  their  afternoon  period  of 
work  at  12  :45  p.  m.  and  in  some  cities  at  12  :30  p.  m." — Bogardus,  op. 
cit.,  p.  513. 

t  Senate  Document  No.  645,  Vol.  XI,  p.  100. 

78 


THE    NEW    STRAIN    IN    INDUSTRY 

a  greater  number  of  accidents.  It  may  in  the  end  become 
so  pronounced  that  speed  is  reduced  and  the  accident  rate 
lowered.  .  .  .  It  is  a  steadily  progressive  process.  It 
gradually  upsets  those  nice  adjustments  of  the  living  or- 
ganism upon  which  depend  efficient  labor  and  the  safety  of 
the  worker.  The  margin  of  safety  in  modern  industry  is 
small.  It  is  measured  too  frequently  by  fractions  of  an  inch. 
Reduce  the  alertness  and  the  exactness  with  which  the  body 
responds  to  the  necessities  of  labor,  and  by  just  so  much  have 
you  increased  the  liability  that  the  hand  will  be  misplaced 
that  fraction  which  means  mutilation." 

Obviously  these  statistics  and  surmises  as  to  the  relation 
of  fatigue  to  the  accident  rate  urgently  need  further  confirma- 
tion. They  do  not  completely  agree  and  need  to  be  clari- 
fied by  a  really  scientific  examination  of  both  the  production 
rate  and  the  accident  rate  in  the  same  establishments.  In 
order  to  clarify  the  influence  of  fatigue  on  the  accident  rate, 
the  number  of  hours  worked  by  injured  persons  on  the  days 
of  their  injuries  should  obviously  be  included  in  all  future 
statistics,  besides  the  actual  hours  of  incidence. 

Side  by  side  with  the  perfection  of  mechanisms  and 
safety  appliances  should  go  the  study  of  those  underlying 
physiological  and  psychological  factors  which  so  largely  con- 
tribute to  swell  the  accident  rate  and  which  may,  when  better 
studied  and  understood,  be  modified  if  not  obliterated  by  the 
provision  of  periodic  rests  or  pauses,  and  similar  devices  to 
check  the  inroads  of  fatigue  and  exhaustion. 

6.  RHYTHM 

The  strain  of  machine  work  upon  the  faculty  of  atten- 
tion thus  leads  to  the  gravest  consequences.  Another  subtly 
fatiguing  element  in  machine  work,  which  we  have  not  yet 
examined,  is  due  to  its  rhythm.  It  is  apparent  that  the 
rhythm  of  any  power-driven  machinery  is  fixed  and  mechan- 
ical, depending  upon  its  construction  and  its  rate  of  speed. 
Now  it  is  true  also  that  human  beings  tend  to  work  rhyth- 
mically, and  when  the  individual's  natural  swing  or  rhythmic 

79 


FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 

tendency  must  be  wholly  subordinated  to  the  machine's 
more  rapid  mechanical  rh\'thm,  fatigue  is  likel\'  to  ensue. 

Rhythm  in  human  beings  is  not  a  fanciful  or  theoretic 
notion;  it  is  a  common  endowment.  The  human  organism 
instinctively  attunes  itself  to  rhythm,  as  a  dancer  yields  her- 
self to  her  measure,  without  thought  or  even  consciousness. 
This  is  a  matter  of  everyday  experience.  Some  persons  are 
palpably  disturbed  by  the  sudden  stopping  of  a  clock  to  the 
ticking  of  which  they  have  been  accustomed.  The  rhythm 
of  the  tick  may  be  missed  even  in  sleep;  its  sudden  cessation 
is  sufficient  to  awaken  one  when  a  bedroom  clock  runs  down 
at  night.  Everyone  knows  how  acutely  the  rhythm  of  a 
train  or  vessel  may  be  missed,  when  one  first  sets  foot  on 
solid  earth  after  a  long  journey. 

Since  the  beginning  of  time,  this  natural  instinct  for 
rhythm  has  found  an  outlet  in  dance  and  song.*  It  was  the 
mother  of  the  arts.  It  gave  birth  to  the  folksongs  and  folk- 
dances,  in  which  primitive  people  expressed  themselves — 
their  loves  and  hates,  their  dreams  of  life  and  death,  and 
their  concrete  activities.  Not  the  poetry  of  existence  only, 
but  all  the  daily  offices  of  life — spinning,  weaving,  sowing 
the  grain,  harvesting,  and  the  rest — inspired  song  and  dance, 
their  own  rhythms. 

Even  today  innumerable  survivals  persist,  marking  our 
kinship  with  the  earlier  children  of  men.  Sailors  and  other 
workmen  almost  unconsciously  chant  or  "hoy-ho"as  they 
haul.  In  the  midst  of  discordant  city  traffic,  workmen  who 
are  mending  the  pavements  drive  steel  wedges  with  rhyth- 
mic shouts  and  rhythmic  alternating  blows  of  their  sledges. 
They  know,  instinctively,  that  the  rhythm  makes  the  work 
easier.  So,  too,  soldiers  march  better  and  with  less  exertion 
to  a  tune.  It  is  not  only  the  emotional  excitement  of  a 
martial  air,  it  is  the  rhythmic  beat  of  the  music  that  helps  to 
swing  the  march  along  in  unison. 

*  BiJcher,  Karl:  Arbeit  und  Rhythmus.  Fourth  edition.  Leipzig, 
Teubner,  1909. 

80 


THE   NEW   STRAIN    IN    INDUSTRY 

"For  the  world  was  built  in  order 
And  the  atoms  march  in  tune; 
Rhyme  the  pipe,  and  Time  the  warder, 
The  sun  obeys  them  and  the  moon.  .  .  . 
None  so  backward  in  the  troop, 
When  the  music  and  the  dance 
Reach  his  place  and  circumstance." 

Even  in  the  animal  world,  rhythm  is  natural.  The 
rhythm  of  the  trotting  horse  or  the  ambhng  camel  is  as  in- 
dividual to  itself  as  the  beat  of  the  blacksmith's,  the  cobbler's 
or  the  carpenter's  hammer,  or  the  swing  of  the  housemaid's 
broom.  With  a  musical  people,  such  as  the  American  Negro, 
not  only  rhythmic  movements  but  rhythmic  songs  persist 
among  such  diverse  workers  as  cotton-pickers  in  Georgia 
laborers  laying  railroad  and  trolley  rails  in  Kentucky,  and 
the  roustabouts  on  the  Mississippi.* 

The  reason  why  rhythm  makes  work  easier  as  well  as 
more  enjoyable  is  that  in  any  given  tempo,  each  effort  is 
followed  by  a  corresponding  rest.  There  is  a  perfect  balance 
of  swing  and  recovery,  rise  and  fall,  exertion  and  repose — 
"  primal  chimes  "  as  Emerson,  the  lover  of  rhythm,  calls  them : 

"Primal  chimes  of  sun  and  shade. 
Of  sound  and  echo,  man  and  maid;  .  .  . 
For  Nature  beats  in  perfect  tune. 
And  rounds  with  rhyme  her  every  rune." 

If  such  a  balance  could  be  permanently  established  in 
work,  fatigue  could  never  occur.  Such  a  condition  exists  in 
the  physiological  rhythm  of  the  heart  and  respiratory  muscles, 
which  function  unceasingly  through  life,  alternating  work 
and  rest,  work  and  rest.  In  its  steady  rhythmic  tempo  the 
heart  relaxes  at  each  contraction,  exerting  energy  estimated 
at  about  20,000  kilogrammeters  in  one  day.f 

Thus  are  we  physiologically  attuned  to  rhythm.  It  is 
our  common  heritage.  The  injury  of  highly  speeded  machine 
work  lies,  as  we  have  said,  in  this,  that  the  mechanical,  rapid 

*  Biicher,  op.  cit.,  pp.  235-251. 

t  Roth,  Dr.  Emil:  Ermudung  durch  Berufsarbeit.  Op.  cit.,  p.  606. 
KiIogrammeter  =  7.2  foot  pounds.     For  definition  of  foot  pound  see  p.  195. 

6  8l 


FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 

rhythm  of  machinery  dominates  the  human  agent,  whatever 
be  his  natural  rate  or  rhythmic  tendency.  The  machine 
sets  the  tempo;  the  worker  must  keep  to  it. 

Not  only  is  the  beat  of  the  machine  much  more  rapid 
and  regular  than  the  more  elastic  human  rhythms;  it  is  often 
wholly  lost  in  the  chaos  of  different  rhythms  of  the  various 
machines,  belts,  and  pulleys  in  one  workroom.  The  roar  and 
vibration  of  machinery  tends  further  to  distract  any  sense 
of  rhythm  on  the  part  of  the  workers. 


7.     PIECE-WORK 

Another  enemy  of  the  physiological  tempo  lies  in  the 
abuse  of  the  piece-work  system.  Here  we  must  preface  our 
physiological  objections  to  the  abuse  of  a  system,  by  realizing 
the  inherent  value  of  the  system  itself,  properly  managed. 
Briefly,  piece-work  presupposes  a  naturally  varying  rate  of 
work  and  output  among  individuals,  according  to  which  each 
worker  is  paid.  Obviously,  this  should  be  the  most  just  way 
to  allow  for  the  play  of  natural  talents.  Increased  effort  or 
skill  brings  its  immediate  reward,  and  the  best  worker  is  the 
best  paid.  In  highly  organized  trades,  where  the  piece-work 
system  has  been  minutely  worked  out,  as  in  the  great  shoe 
industry,  neither  workers  nor  employers  would  for  a  moment 
consider  returning  to  a  time  basis,  where  individuals  are  paid 
alike  by  the  hour. 

In  criticising  the  piece-rates,  therefore,  we  are  dealing 
with  an  entrenched  practice,  and  criticism  must  attack  not 
the  system,  but  its  flagrant  abuses.  These,  unfortunately, 
are  common  and  widespread,  especially  among  workingwomen 
in  poorly  organized  trades,  where  no  collective  bargaining 
protects  individuals  from  pressure.  In  such  occupations,  of 
which  the  ramified  needle  and  clothing  trades  are  the  best 
examples,  piece-work  develops  chiefly  into  a  system  of  "  speed- 
ing up"  the  workers  in  both  machine  and  hand  work.  The 
workers  are  spurred  to  a  feverish  intensity.  They  apply 
themselves  hectically.     It  is  almost  inevitable  that  the  most 

82 


THE    NEW    STRAIN    IN    INDUSTRY 

rapid  workers  should  be  so-called  "  pace-makers"  and  set  the 
rhythm  for  all  the  other  workers.  For  pay  is  usually  ad- 
justed to  the  rate  of  the  quickest  workers,  and  in  order  to  earn 
a  fair  wage,  all  the  others  must  keep  up  as  near  to  them  as 
possible.  Thus,  if  a  quick  girl  can  stitch  ten  dozen  pieces  of 
white  underwear  in  a  day,  she  can  earn  $1.50  at  the  rate  of 
15  cents  per  dozen.  Another  girl  can  at  her  natural  pace 
stitch  no  more  than  six  dozen  in  one  day.  But  since  she 
would  earn  only  90  cents  a  day  at  the  same  rate  of  pay,  she 
drives  herself  feverishly  to  greater  exertion.  Piece-work, 
then,  means  working  watch  in  hand.  When  every  minute 
means  loss  of  an  already  meager  wage,  the  incentive  to  spurt 
is  irresistible. 

Many  employers  contend  that  unless  workers  have  such 
incentives,  or  a  personal  stake  in  working  steadily,  they  tend 
to  slacken  and  are  indifferent  to  the  amount  of  their  output 
so  long  as  wages  are  assured.  The  workers,  on  the  other 
hand,  return  that  in  piece-work,  even  the  utmost  speed  does 
not  assure  them  of  their  wages,  since  the  piece-work  price  is 
often  cut  when  the  rapid  workers  are  thought  to  be  earning 
too  much  in  one  day.  The  rate  per  piece  is  lowered.  Then 
the  same  speed  is  required  to  earn  the  lower  wage.* 

Another  hardship  in  piece-work  of  which  the  workers 
justly  complain  and  which  adds  greatly  to  the  nervous  tax  of 
any  occupation  is  due  to  the  extraordinarily  rapid  changes  of 
fashion.  Thus,  for  example,  just  when  a  girl  has  become 
proficient  enough  to  earn  a  fair  wage  at  piece-rates  in  tucking 
women's  shirtwaists,  the  tucks  go  out  of  fashion,  and  a  new 
kind  of  stitching  is  required.  Even  the  skilled  worker  is  a 
novice  at  first,  and  cannot  for  some  time  equal  the  speed  she 
had  acquired  by  practice  at  her  former  work.  Yet  the  manu- 
facturer, in  fixing  piece-rates,  rarely  makes  allowance  for  such 
sudden  freaks  of  fashion,  and  the  hardship  of  the  inevitable 
changes  falls  on  the  one  least  able  to  support  it,  the  worker. 

*  For  a  striking  example  of  the  abuse  of  the  piece-work  system  in  the 
manufacture  of  electric  lamp  bulbs,  see  Report  on  Condition  of  Woman  and 
Child  Wage-Earners  in  the  United  States,  Vol.  ill,  p.  480.  Senate  Docu- 
ment No.  645,  61st  Congress,  2nd  Session,  1911. 

83 


FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 

Her  wage  practically  is  cut  and  her  work  intensified  by  every 
shift  of  fashion. 

Thus,  though  the  piece-work  system  is  sound  in  theory 
and  works  admirably  in  highly  organized  trades  where  col- 
lective agreements  assure  the  workers  fair,  fixed  rates,  it 
fails  among  the  most  helpless  workers  who  most  need  to  be 
protected  from  over-pressure  and  the  inroads  of  fatigue. 
With  them  it  almost  inevitably  breeds  a  spirit  of  permanent 
"rush"  in  work,  and  to  that  extent  it  is  physiologically 
dangerous:  "the  most  pernicious  thing  that  could  be  de- 
vised to  weaken  what,  for  a  better  term,  might  be  de- 
scribed as  the  dynamic  efficiency  of  the  nervous  system,"* 
writes  a  physician  familiar  with  the  effects  of  unregulated 
piece-rates  among  garment  workers. 


8.    OVERTIME 

The  factors  which  we  selected  as  typical  of  the  new 
strain  in  industry  are  all  aggravated  and  intensified  by  the 
system  of  overtime  evening  work,  to  which  we  have  already 
made  passing  reference.  Overtime  means  that  after  the 
regular  day's  work  is  done,  evening  work  is  required  in 
addition. 

Overtime  is  an  elastic  term.  In  its  extremest  forms, 
reported  in  printing  and  binding  establishments,  it  lengthens 
the  workday  to  twenty-four  hours  in  one  stretch.  In  less 
extreme  degree,  overtime  is  worked  during  the  fall  months 
until  eight  or  nine  or  ten  o'clock  each  evening  in  factories 
which  supply  the  Christmas  market;  in  paper  box  making; 
in  the  manufacture  of  innumerable  articles  of  women's  wear — 
from  lace  collars  to  Japanese  kimonos;  in  leather  and  jewelry 
work;  in  making  the  cheaper  and  more  lasting  candies,  and 
in  many  other  occupations. 

Indeed,  overtime  is  common  to  almost  all  industries  and 

*  Schwab,  Dr.  Sidney  I.  (Professor  of  Nervous  and  Mental  Diseases, 
St.  Louis  University):  Neurasthenia  among  Garment  Workers.  American 
Labor  Legislation  Review,  Vol.  1,  No.  1,  p.  27.     (January,  1911.) 

84 


THE    NEW    STRAIN    IN    INDUSTRY 

is  prevalent  in  every  industrial  center,  to  a  degree  wholly 
unknown  to  most  persons.  No  more  arresting  fact  emerges 
from  the  comprehensive  study  of  wage-earning  women  and 
children  made  by  the  federal  government,  than  the  almost 
incredible  length  and  duration  of  this  form  of  extra  employ- 
ment. 

People  speak  habitually,  and  labor  statistics  usually 
treat  of,  the  so-called  "normal"  hours  of  labor,  dismissing 
overtime  as  an  insignificant  and  merely  occasional  side  issue. 
Overtime  is  regarded  as  a  sort  of  temporary  emergency, 
similar  to  many  other  of  life's  stresses  which  people  weather 
without  permanent  injury,  thanks  to  their  reserve  strength. 
But,  in  fact,  overtime  is  an  integral  part  of  the  workers'  lives, 
persisting  not  only  for  days  at  a  time  but  for  weeks  and 
months;  not  occasionally  lengthening  the  day's  work,  but 
during  a  large  part  of  the  year  straining  health  and  endurance 
to  the  utmost. 

Thus,  in  the  recent  federal  investigation  of  wage-earning 
women  and  children,  agents  of  the  government  reported  the 
normal  hours  of  work,  in  miscellaneous  manufactures,  as  55J^ 
in  New  York,  56.4  in  Chicago,  53.3  in  Philadelphia,  53  in 
Baltimore.  But  the  average  duration  of  overtime  of  selected 
workers  in  those  cities,  during  1907-08,  was  17.3  weeks  or 
over  four  months  in  New  York,  13}4  weeks  or  more  than  three 
months  in  Chicago,  16.6  weeks  or  again  over  four  months  in 
Philadelphia,  13  weeks  in  Baltimore.*  In  one  printing  es- 
tablishment in  New  York  City,  girls  were  employed  once  and 
sometimes  twice  a  week,  during  a  period  of  sixteen  to  twenty- 
six  weeks,  for  16^,  20^,  22>2,  and  24^  continuous  hours. f 

These  longest  days  of  overtime  work  are  reported  in 
New  York  binderies.  But  in  a  special  investigation  of 
Chicago  box  factories  the  weeks  of  overtime  persisted  longest.  + 

*  Report  on  Condition  of  Woman  and  Child  Wage-Earners  in  the 
United  States,  Vol.  V,  pp.  204,  208,  211,  213.  Senate  Document  No. 
645.     61st  Congress,  2nd  Session.     1910. 

t  Ibid.,  p.  205. 

J  Bulletin  of  the  U.  S.  Bureau  of  Labor  No.  91,  Nov.,  1910.  Working 
Hours  of  Wage-earning  Women  in  Chicago,  pp.  875-880. 

85 


FATIGUE    AND    El-FICIENCY 

Eleven  box  factories  employing  1010  workers  were  in- 
vestigated. Their  average  duration  of  overtime  was  fifteen 
weeks  in  the  year;  one  factory  reported  overtime  extending 
over  thirty-seven  weeks  in  the  year;  that  is,  more  than  nine 
months*  In  this  case,  the  so-called  "normal"  hours  were 
worked  only  three  months;  the  supposedly  extra  "overtime 
hours"  were  worked  regularly  more  than  nine  months  in  the 
year, — a  reducito  ad  absurdum  of  the  whole  matter.  Yet  this 
is  not  merely  an  eccentricity  of  nomenclature.  It  is  a  trick 
of  psychology;  a  not  unfair  example  of  our  habitual  mental 
attitude  towards  the  custom  of  overtime,  accepting  the 
shorter  hours  as  normal  and  habitual,  dismissing  from  mind 
the  excessive  hours  no  matter  how  long  they  may  persist,  as 
exceptional,  under  the  head  of  "overtime." 

Obviously,  when  overtime  extends  over  such  hours  as 
those  quoted  here,  it  shares  all  the  dangers  inherent  in  regu- 
lar night  work.  Upon  these  dangers  we  shall  dwell  subse- 
quently, in  discussing  more  fully  the  phenomenon  of  all  night 
work.  Here  it  suffices  to  draw  attention  to  the  fact  that  be- 
side the  dangers  to  health,  there  are  inevitably  moral  dangers 
also,  potential  in  all  employment  of  women  after  dark. 

The  return  home  at  late  night  or  early  morning  hours  is 
fraught  with  the  peril  of  insult  if  not  of  attack;  association 
with  men  employes  at  night,  and  during  the  midnight  recess 
in  establishments  running  all  night  long,  presents  special 
temptation;  women  who  live  away  from  home  cannot  easily 
return  to  reputable  living  places  late  at  night. 

Such  hardships  are  incurred  by  the  worker  kept  for 
overtime  as  well  as  by  the  all  night  worker.  But  physio- 
logically considered,  overtime  sins  against  health  in  a  way 
peculiar  to  itself.  It  means  that  the  elements  which  make 
up  industrial  stress — speed,  complexity,  monoton>',  and  the 

*  In  this  firm,  the  normal  hours  were  fifty-nine  in  one  week,  the  "long 
day"  being  ten  hours;  in  the  busy  season  (thirty-seven  weeks)  the  "long 
day"  was  thirteen  and  one-half  hours,  and  the  week  was  made  up  as  follows: 

"One  nine-hour  day,  three  thirteen  and  one-half-hour  days  and  two 
ten-hour  days,  making  the  total  number  of  hours  for  the  six-day  week 
sixty-nine  and  one-half."     Op.  cit.,  p.  877. 

86 


THE    NEW    STRAIN    IN    INDUSTRY 

rest — must  be  endured  by  an  organism  which  has  presumably 
already  reached  its  limits. 

The  essential  injury  of  overtime  is  due  to  what  we  have 
seen  graphically  proved  with  the  ergograph:  that  effort 
increases  with  fatigue;  that  work  continued  after  fatigue 
has  set  in  requires  so  much  more  subsequent  time  for  re- 
cuperation. But  during  a  "rush"  or  overtime  season  such 
time  for  recuperation  is  necessarily  lacking.  The  girl  who  is 
kept  in  the  great  department  stores  until  ten  or  eleven  or 
twelve  o'clock  at  night  during  one  or  two  frenzied  weeks  be- 
fore the  holiday  which  heralds  the  reign  of  Peace ;  the  girl  who 
works  at  fever  heat  all  evening  stitching  women's  shirtwaists 
in  January  for  the  spring  trade,  is  not  relieved  from  the 
necessity  of  reporting  for  work  at  seven  or  eight  o'clock  the 
next  morning.  She  comes  to  work  unrepaired,  and  with  each 
day  of  overtime,  accumulated  fatigue  necessarily  grows. 

One  of  the  least  known  and  most  straining  forms  of 
overtime,  for  which  Christmas  is  responsible,  occurs  in  the 
auditing  department  of  the  great  stores.  One  of  the  largest 
establishments  in  New  York  City,  typical  of  the  best  stores, 
closes  its  doors  to  shoppers  throughout  the  winter  at  six 
o'clock.  But  the  girls  who  serve  behind  the  counters  may 
leave  every  night  at  their  regular  hour  though  girls  upstairs 
in  the  clerical  department  are  kept  until  nine  o'clock  in  the 
evening  during  more  than  two  months,  that  is,  from  De- 
cember 1  until  February.  They  usually  receive  no  extra 
pay  for  the  three  extra  daily  hours  of  work,  but  have  an 
allowance  of  35  cents  each  evening  for  supper  money. 

In  theory,  the  requirement  of  overtime  is  supposed  to  be 
balanced  by  the  slack  period  which  often  follows.  A  short 
period  of  over-exertion  is  assumed  to  be  compensated  by  a 
subsequent  let-up.  But  the  slack  period  which  often  follows 
overtime  does  not  give  the  supposed  opportunity  for  leisure 
and  recuperation.  It  is  itself  a  season  of  deprivation.  For 
slack  work  means  slack  pay,  with  a  consequent  loss  rather 
than  ^ain  in  opportunities  for  recuperation. 

But  deeper  than  this  objection  to  the  alternation  of 
87 


FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 

overwork  and  idleness,  is  the  physiological  objection.  Dur- 
ing overtime,  leisure  and  rest  are  cut  down  at  the  very  same 
time  that  heavier  and  longer  demands  are  made  upon  the 
human  organism.  It  is  practically  inevitable  that  the  meta- 
bolic balance  should  be  thrown  out  of  gear.  Regular  sea- 
sonal overtime  in  such  occupations  as  those  cited  above, 
leaves  the  worker  with  too  great  a  physiological  deficit. 
There  is  no  rebound,  or  an  infinitely  slow  one  when  our 
elastic  capacities  have  been  too  tensely  stretched.  It  takes 
much  more  time,  rest,  repair  than  the  working  girl  can  possibly 
afford  to  make  good  such  metabolic  losses.  Compensation 
— off-time — comes  too  late.  As  we  know  instinctively,  and 
as  we  have  seen  diagrammatically  proved  in  the  laboratory, 
the  essential  thing  in  rest  is  the  time  at  which  it  comes.  Rest 
postponed  is  rest  more-than-proportionally  deprived  of 
virtue.  Fatigue  let  run  is  a  debt  to  be  paid  at  compound 
interest.  Maggiora  showed  that  after  a  doubled  task, 
muscle  requires  not  double  but  four  times  as  long  a  rest  for 
recuperation,  and  a  similar  need  for  more-than-proportionally 
increased  rest  after  excessive  work  is  true  also  of  our  other 
tissues,  and  of  our  organism  in  its  totality. 

No  one  need  therefore  be  surprised  to  learn  that  after  a 
period  of  overtime  work,  a  marked  growth  of  many  minor 
ailments  has  been  found  where  there  has  been  medical  ex- 
amination of  working  girls  and  women.  A  recent  report  of 
the  British  Chief  Inspector  of  Factories  quotes  a  striking 
example  of  this.*  In  six  large  tobacco  factories,  physicians 
appointed  by  the  firms  reported  an  increase  of  from  one- 
third  to  one-half  in  the  number  of  workers  coming  to  them 
for  treatment  after  continuous  overtime  work.  No  special 
diseases  were  found  but,  as  might  be  expected,  aggravated 
cases  of  the  ordinary  ailments,  such  as  indigestion,  anaemia, 
heavy  colds  in  winter,  gastric  disorders  in  summer.  This 
was  in  a  trade  considered  not  in  itself  unhealthy  by  the 
physicians  quoted,  and  where  overtime  was  limited  by  the 

*  British  Sessional  Papers,  Vol.  X,  Appendix  II,  1907,  pp.  253-254. 


THE   NEW    STRAIN    IN    INDUSTRY 

British  law  so  that  the  total  amount  of  work  done  could  not 
exceed  ten  and  one-half  hours  in  one  day. 

This  is  only  one  example  of  many  which  might  be  quoted. 
Year  after  year  the  British  factory  inspectors  have  registered 
their  disapproval  of  overtime  on  physical  grounds,  and  have 
denounced  its  physical  eflFects.  "Nothing  short  of  a  public 
scandal,"  "inexcusable,"  "outrageous,"  are  some  of  the  epi- 
thets repeatedly  used.  In  France,  the  "veillee"  or  evening 
overtime  work,  especially  in  dressmaking  establishments, 
comes  in  for  the  same  denunciation.  A  German  physician, 
Dr.  Emil  Roth,  of  Potsdam,  expresses  himself  similarly  in 
an  address  which  combines  scientific  thoroughness  with  a 
first  hand  knowledge  of  industry.  His  observation  inclines 
him  to  believe  that  the  strain  of  seasonal  overwork  upon  the 
health  of  working  women  in  stores  and  factories  is  never  com- 
pensated, but  encroaches  steadily  upon  the  worker's  total 
health  and  endurance,  permanently  lowering  their  levels.* 

*  Roth,  Dr.  Emil:    Ermiidung  durch  Berufsarbeit.     Op.  cit.,  p.  610. 


89 


IV 

SOME    SPECIFIC   STUDIES   OF    PHYSICAL   OVER- 
STRAIN IN  INDUSTRY 

THUS  a  rapid  glance  at  some  actual  conditions  in 
diverse  occupations  such  as  the  telephone  service, 
the  great  woman-employing  needle  and  textile  and 
shoe  trades,  and  the  canneries,  throws  some  light  upon  the 
new  strain  of  industry.  In  all  these  occupations  work  has 
increased  its  demands  upon  human  energies.  We  turn  next 
to  learn  some  of  the  physical  effects  upon  the  workers,  so 
far  as  these  have  been  observed  and  recorded. 

As  concerns  the  past,  we  have  abundant  testimony  on 
the  fruits  of  overwork,  not  only  regarding  those  who  have 
themselves  been  bound  to  exacting  tasks,  but  regarding  their 
children  and  the  communities  in  which  their  lives  were  spent. 
This  kind  of  testimony,  to  which  we  shall  often  have  occasion 
to  refer  in  this  study,  is  found  in  the  accumulated  official 
and  unofficial  reports  of  the  inspectors  and  physicians  who 
have  had  daily  to  observe  the  conditions  of  labor  at  first 
hand,  and  whose  unconscious  unanimity  gives  to  their  evi- 
dence, as  we  have  pointed  out,  a  strangely  heightened  power. 
The  individual  observer  may  exaggerate  or  minimize  or 
strain  the  facts.  But  no  one  can  read  without  a  deep  sense 
of  its  total  truth,  the  reiterated  evidence  of  generations  of 
such  observers,  in  many  countries,  writing  independently 
but  agreeing  fundamentally  in  their  observations  and  diag- 
noses.* 

There  is  a  peculiar  significance  in  this  kind  of  testimony. 
It  is  the  accumulated  experience  of  mankind  and  has  an 
authority  due  to  its  very  iterations.     This  is  the  power  and 

*  See  Part  II  of  this  volume. 
90 


STUDIES    OF    PHYSICAL    OVERSTRAIN    IN    INDUSTRY 

the  moving  appeal  of  history,  that  it  gives  us,  as  fiction  rarely 
can,  precisely  the  cumulative  experiences,  the  persistent  re- 
alities of  our  common  lot.  A  truth  that  has  been  a  hundred 
years  in  the  forging  is,  in  so  far  forth,  just  so  much  the  truer. 
It  is  not  a  mathematical  formula,  proved  once  for  all  and 
immutable.  The  truths  of  history  gain  in  meaning  and  power 
under  changed  guises,  coming  down  to  the  children  of  a  later 
age  with  a  fuller  and  more  significant  content.  This  is  as 
true  of  industrial  history  as  of  any  other;  and  hence  the  in- 
dustrial experience  of  the  past  should  enable  us  more  in- 
telligently to  estimate  our  own  difficulties  and  performances. 


1.     INFANT  MORTALITY 

According  to  the  testimony  of  many  observers,  the 
industrial  overstrain  of  women  has  commonly  reacted  in 
three  visible  ways:  in  a  heightened  infant  mortality,  a 
lowered  birth  rate,  and  an  impaired  second  generation.  We 
can  readily  see  that  many  factors  besides  overwork  contribute 
to  the  greater  mortality  of  infants  among  the  working  class. 
Probably  improper  feeding  holds  the  first  place  amongst 
causes,  and  overcrowding,  with  all  its  train  of  ijls  such  as 
foul  air,  dirt,  and  darkness,  is  an  important  item.  But  the 
relation,  direct  and  indirect,  between  women's  industrial  work 
and  a  high  death  rate  among  infants  is  well-established. 
Few  exact  and  detailed  studies  of  this  relationship  have 
been  made  in  our  country,  but  it  has  been  pointed  out 
that  infant  mortality  is  highest  in  industrial  communities 
where  mainly  women  are  employed  in  factories.  Thus  an 
abnormally  high  death  rate  of  infants  is  asserted  to  exist  in 
two  cotton  mill  towns  of  New  England, — Fall  River,  Massa- 
chusetts, and  Biddeford,  Maine.* 

The  latest  government  statistics  also  show  the  abnormally 
high  infant  mortality  in  textile  towns.     In  1910,  in  selected 

*  Prevention  of  Infant  Mortality.  Being  the  papers  and  discussions 
of  a  Conference  on  Prevention  of  Infant  Mortality,  New  Haven,  Conn., 
1909,  p.  37.     Under  the  Auspices  of  the  American  Academy  of  Medicine. 

91 


FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 

cities,  the  number  of  deaths  of  infants  under  one  year,  per 
100  deaths  at  all  ages,  was  as  follows:* 

Boston 19 

Chicago 21 

New  York  Citv 21 

Biddeford 27 

Lowell 29 

Lawrence 35 

Holyoke 35 

Fall  River 39 

In  1910  the  number  of  deaths  of  infants  under  one 
year,  per  1000  births,  in  selected  cities  was  as  follows  :t 

New  York  City 125 

Boston 126 

Philadelphia 138 

Lawrence 167 

New  Bedford 177 

Holyoke 213 

Lowell 231 

More  detailed  studies  abroad  have  sought  to  show 
the  relation  between  a  high  mortality  of  young  children  and 
the  industrial  employment  of  women.  The  death  rate  of 
infants  is  said  to  increase  in  proportion  to  the  increase 
in  the  number  of  women  at  work.  Dr.  Newman  in  his 
standard  work!  devotes  material  attention  to  this  subject 
as  it  affects  the  death  rate  in  Great  Britain.  He  compares 
eight  towns  chosen  for  their  low  percentage  of  women  at 
work  and  eight  towns  chosen  for  their  high  percentage  of 
women  engaged  in  the  textile  trades,  between  the  ages  of 
fifteen  and  thirty-five  years,  that  is,  during  the  ages  of  re- 
productive potentiality. 

In  the  non-textile  towns,  the  average  yearly  infant  mor- 
tality during  the  decennium,  1896  to  1905,  was  150  per  1,000 
infants. 

*  Bureau  of  the  Census.  Department  of  Commerce  and  Labor. 
Bulletin  109.     Mortality  Statistics,  1910,  p.  14.     Washington.  1912. 

t  ibid.,  p.  18. 

X  Newman,  George,  M.D.  (Lecturer  on  Public  Health  at  St.  Bartholo- 
mew's Hospital,  London ;  Medical  Officer  of  Health  of  Metropolitan  Borough 
of  Finsbury):  infant  Mortality,  p.  105.  New  York,  E.  P.  Dutton  and 
Co.,  1907. 

92 


STUDIES   OF    PHYSICAL   OVERSTRAIN    IN    INDUSTRY 

AVERAGE    INFANT    MORTALITY   RATE    IN   SOME    ENGLISH   NON- 
TEXTILE  TOWNS,  1896-1905 


Town 

Infant  Mortality 
Rate.  1896-1905 

Percentage  of  Occupied 
Women,  ages  15  to  35. 

Total 

Married  or  IVidowed 

Sunderland 

166 
160 
157 
155 
153 
147 
144 
119 

55.1 
59.4 
63.3 
53.8 
63.6 
62.6 
57.9 
60.5 

2.8 

Swansea 

5.0 

Lincoln 

3.2 

South  Shields 

3.0 

Newton 

2.6 

Cardiff  

3.8 

Barrow-in-Furness 

Burton            

2.9 
2.0 

Average 

150 

59.5 

3.1 

In  the  textile  towns,  on  the  other  hand,  the  average 
infant  mortaUty  was  182  per  1,000  infants,  rising  as  high  as 
208.* 


INFANT    MORTALITY    RATE  IN  SOME  ENGLISH  TEXTILE  TOWNS, 

1896-1905 


Town 

Infant  Mortality 
Rate,  1896-1905 

Percentage  of  Occupied 
Women,  ages  15  to  35 

Total 

Married  or  IVidowed 

Burnley 

208 
208 
183 
180 
175 
170 
166 
164 

90.9 
84.4 
91.8 
84.6 
87.6 
87.3 
87.4 
88.9 

59.7 

Preston 

50.5 

Blackburn 

63.9 

Nottingham 

27.5 

Leicester 

41.6 

Oldham 

33.4 

Bolton 

24.7 

Bury 

44.8 

Average 

182 

88.4 

43.2 

* 

Newman,  op.  cit. 
93 

p.  106. 

FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 

From  these  tables  it  appears  that  the  percentage  of 
workingwomen  between  fifteen  and  thirty-five  years  in  the 
high  mortahty  textile  towns  was  28.9  per  cent  higher  than  in 
the  low  mortality  towns;  the  percentage  of  married  working- 
women  was  40  per  cent  more  than  in  the  low  mortality  towns. 

Another  careful  study  extending  over  twenty  xears  was 
made  by  the  medical  officer  of  health  of  Kearsley,  a  Lanca- 
shire town  of  about  10,000  inhabitants.  The  death  rate  of 
Kearsley  remained  stationary  between  1885  and  1904,  but 
the  infant  death  rate  rose  in  the  same  period  from  143  to 
229.  During  the  same  period  the  birth  rate  fell  from  39  to 
27  per  1,000.  These  striking  figures  are  attributed  to  the 
fact  that  the  town  has  developed  into  a  manufacturing  dis- 
trict of  many  mills,  where  large  numbers  of  women  are  em- 
ployed. 

Again,  in  Preston,  the  increase  in  infant  mortality  was 
so  marked  between  1881  and  1900  that  a  committee  was 
appointed  to  study  the  matter.  While  the  general  death 
rate  sank  from  24.73  to  20.80,  the  number  of  babies  who 
died  rose  from  208  to  236  per  1,000  infants.  The  committee 
reported*  that  in  its  opinion  the  causes  of  this  increase  were 
the  employment  of  women  in  mills  and  the  consequent  en- 
forced neglect  of  babies  at  home. 

Dr.  Newman  sums  up  the  whole  matter  by  saying  :t 

"It  is  the  employment  of  women  from  girlhood  all 
through  married  life,  and  through  the  period  of  child-bearing 
— the  continual  stress  and  strain  of  the  work  and  hours  and 
general  conditions  prevailing  in  women's  labour — that  is 
exerting  its  baneful  influence  on  the  individual  and  on  the 
home." 

If  the  death  rate  of  infants  is  so  high  where  women 
are  employed  in  the  protected  British  textile  trade,  with 
its  ten-hour  day  and  fifty-five  and  a  half  hour  week  en- 

*  Report  on  Health  of  Preston,  1902,  pp.  10-12.  (Quoted  by  Newman, 
p.  136.) 

t  Newman,  op.  cit.,  p.  136. 

94 


STUDIES    OF    PHYSICAL    OVERSTRAIN    IN    INDUSTRY 

forced,  we  may  well  ask  what  are  likely  to  be  the  effects  of 
the  stress  and  strain  of  such  American  industries  as  we  have 
examined  above,  upon  child  bearing  and  infant  mortality. 


2.     LOW  BIRTH  RATE 

it  is  true  that  women's  industrial  work  probably  affects 
the  infant  death  rate  less  here  than  abroad  owing  to  the  far 
smaller  proportion  of  married  women  in  industry.  But  a 
point  of  equal  importance  is  the  effect  of  industrial  overstrain 
in  lowering  the  birth  rate  itself.  It  is  not  only  the  work  of 
women  after  marriage,  or  just  before  confinement,  which  most 
gravely  affects  childbirth.  The  pressure  of  industry  has  not 
only  in  innumerable  cases  marred,  but  often  destroyed  al- 
together that  immemorial  function  of  women,  the  center  of 
the  tenderest  associations  of  our  race.  Medical  authorities 
assert  that  the  strain  of  continuous  standing  and  overwork 
during  girlhood,  such  as  many  young  women  endure  in  stores 
as  well  as  factories,  is  responsible  for  unmistakable  pelvic 
and  uterine  disease  and  sometimes  subsequent  sterility  after 
marriage. 

The  most  impressive  evidence  on  this  topic  was  brought 
out  in  England,  in  successive  efforts  to  establish  by  law  a 
shorter  workday  in  mercantile  establishments.  The  reports 
of  select  committees  (several  of  which  sat  between  1886 
and  1901  and  heard  the  highest  medical  testimony  regard- 
ing the  effects  of  work  in  stores),  dwell  insistently  upon  the 
injuries  from  the  long  hours  and  the  continuous  standing 
upon  the  generative  organs,  in  girlhood  as  well  as  after 
marriage. 

From  among  a  large  number  of  medical  statements  we 
may  cite  one  by  Dr.  Grigg,  out-patient  physician  for  the  dis- 
eases of  women  at  Westminster  Hospital,  senior  physician  to 
the  Queen  Charlotte  Lying-in  Hospital,  and  connected  with 
the  Victoria  Hospital  for  children.  This  physician  was  ques- 
tioned about  the  injuries  of  overwork  to  the  health  of 
girls  and  women  employed  in  stores,  "shop-girl  assistants" 

95 


FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 

as  they  are  called  in  England.     He  said  of  the  prolonged 
hours:* 

"They  have  a  very  grave  effect  upon  the  generative 
organs  of  women,  entailing  a  great  deal  of  suffering,  and  also 
injuring  a  very  large  body  of  them  permanently,  setting  up 
inflammation  in  the  pelvis  in  connection  with  these  organs. 

"  If  the  matter  could  be  gone  into  carefully,  1  think  the 
Committee  would  be  perfectly  surprised  to  fmd  what  a  large 
number  of  these  women  are  rendered  sterile  in  consequence 
of  these  prolonged  hours. 

"  1  think  it  must  be  acknowledged  sterility  is  often  due 
to  this  inflammatory  mischief  arising  around  the  generative 
organs.  1  believe  that  it  is  one  of  the  greatest  evils  attached 
to  these  prolonged  hours.  1  have  seen  many  cases  in  families 
where  certain  members  who  have  pursued  the  calling  of 
shop-girl  assistants  have  been  sterile,  while  other  members 
of  the  family  have  borne  children.  1  know  of  one  case  where 
four  members  of  a  family  who  were  shop  girls  were  sterile 
and  two  other  girls,  not  shop  girls,  have  borne  children; 
and  1  have  known  other  cases  in  which  this  has  occurred. 
.  .  .  I  have  patients  come  to  me  from  all  parts  of  London. 
It  appears  to  be  a  most  common  condition." 

Not  only  do  the  children  of  mothers  at  work  or  over- 
strained during  girlhood  die  in  greater  numbers,  but  the  birth 
rate  is  lower.  The  most  detailed  studies  on  this  subject  ap- 
pear to  have  been  made  by  Professor  Ugo  Broggi,  who  has 
published  extensive  figures  on  the  fecundity  of  working  women. 
He  states t  that  of  172,365  Italian  working  women  between 
the  ages  of  fifteen  and  fifty-four,  who  were  employed  in 
industrial  occupations,  the  average  child-bearing  co-efficient 
was  only  45  per  thousand  or  about  one-third  of  the  general 
fertility  of  Italian  women  (120  per  thousand). 

*  British  Sessional  Papers,  Vol.  XII,  1895.  Report  of  Select  Com- 
mittee on  Shops  (Early  Closing  Bill),  pp.  219-220.  Witness,  Dr.  W.  Chap- 
man Grigg. 

See  also  Part  II  of  this  volume,  pp.  135-142. 

tZeitschrift  der  Socialen  Wissenschaft,  Bd.  VIII,  Nr.  10,  1905.  Die 
Fruchtbarkeit  der  selbstarbeitenden  und  den  arbeitenden  Standen  ange- 
horigen  Frauen,  p.  663. 

96 


STUDIES    OF    PHYSICAL   OVERSTRAIN    IN    INDUSTRY 

3.     RACE  DEGENERATION 

Besides  a  high  death  rate  and  a  low  birth  rate,  sub- 
normahties  of  size  and  weight  often  characterize  the  children 
born  of  working  mothers.  Thus  are  they  handicapped  at 
the  start  and  the  misfortunes  of  the  parents  are  visited  upon 
the  next  generation. 

Such  racial  deterioration,  due  to  the  extremest  over- 
work, was  unmistakably  evident  in  England  after  the  first 
period  of  unchecked  industrial  exploitation.  Between  1830 
and  1840  the  intolerable  overwork  of  two  generations  achieved 
its  result.  The  accounts  of  eye-witnesses,  horrified  by  the 
appearance  of  the  factory  population,  agree  that  there  was  a 
visible  decline  in  the  stature  and  strength  as  well  as  in  the 
morals  of  the  manufacturing  shires. 

"The  factory  population  appear  to  have  become  a  dis- 
tinct race,  that  was  known  at  a  glance,  so  defined  had  the 
effects  of  overwork  and  unhealthy  dwellings  become  upon 
the  physical  appearance  and  condition  of  the  people."* 

"Competition  far  from  regulation  had  in  half  a  century 
produced  a  race  of  pale,  stunted,  and  emaciated  creatures, 
irregular  in  their  lives  and  dissolute  in  their  habits.  Their 
case  appeared  so  desperate  that  for  those  who  believed  in 
laissei  /aire,  'the  only  hope,'  as  Harriet  Martineau  con- 
fessed, '  seems  to  be  that  the  race  will  die  out  in  two  or  three 
generations.' "t 

Home  life  was  totally  lost;  young  children,  girls,  and 
women  were  all  pressed  into  the  service;  the  very  preserva- 
tion of  the  race  was  threatened. 

In  more  recent  times,  the  existence  of  racial  deteriora- 
tion, due  in  large  part  to  overwork  and  exhaustion,  has  been 
interestingly  corroborated  by  the  statistics  of  military  ser- 
vice. In  various  countries,  especially  where  such  service  is 
compulsory,  it  has  been  found  that  the  proportion  of  young 

*  British  Sessional  Papers,  1875,  Vol.  XVI,  p.  23. 
See  also  Part  II  of  this  volume,  pp.  276-286. 

t  The  Case  for  the  Factory  Acts.  Edited  by  Mrs.  Sidney  Webb.  p. 
46.     London,  Grant  Richards,  1901. 

7  97 


FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 

men  rejected  for  physical  unfitness  is  far  higher  in  industrial 
communities  than  in  others. 

The  great  physiologist  Mosso  drew  attention  to  this 
fact  regarding  the  exploited  carusi  or  sulphur  workers  of 
Sicily.  He  had  been  sent  to  the  island  as  a  young  army 
surgeon,  and  he  first  realized  there,  with  a  shock  of  horror, 
the  "ruin  which  the  exhaustion  of  fatigue  brings  about  in 
man"  when  he  saw  the  evidences  of  his  countr\men's  de- 
generation in  the  province  of  Caltanisetta,  in  the  midst  of  the 
loveliest  natural  scenery  in  the  world.  Such  was  the  physical 
condition  of  these  people  that  in  the  four  years  between  1881 
and  1884,  out  of  3,672  sulphur  workers  who  presented  them- 
selves at  the  recruiting  offices,  only  203  were  declared  fit  for 
service.* 

At  about  the  same  time,  in  1886,  Dr.  Schuler,  the  emi- 
nent Swiss  factory  inspector,  reported  f  to  a  congress  of 
GerTnan  scientists  and  physicians  at  Strassburg,  that  the 
factory  work  of  young  persons  in  Switzerland  was  attracting 
marked  attention  owing  to  the  shocking  statistics  of  recruiting 
offices.  Dr.  Schuler  stated  that  in  rural  districts,  where 
there  were  few  mills,  only  14.3  per  cent  to  18.9  per  cent  of  the 
recruits  were  found  unfit  for  immediate  service  and  were 
temporarily  rejected  (that  is,  had  their  terms  of  service  post- 
poned for  two  years).  In  factory  districts,  19.7  to  23.3  per 
cent  of  the  young  men  were  found  unfit  for  service  and  were 
temporarily  rejected.  It  had  been  assumed  that  the  higher 
standard  of  living  obtained  through  the  increased  wages  of 
factory  workers  would  compensate  for  the  hardships  of 
factory  life.  But  these  expectations  were  not  fulfilled. 
Later  investigations  showed  that  in  the  canton  of  Zug,  for 
instance,  only  37  per  cent  of  cotton  mill  operatives  were 
physically  fit  for  service,  while  in  the  same  canton  among  farm 
laborers  49  per  cent  were  fit,  and  among  artisans  from  47 

*  Mosso,  op.  cit.     English  translation,  pp.  158-159. 

t  Deutsche  Vierteljahresschrift  fijr  offentliche  Gesundheitspflege, 
Vol.  XVIII,  1880,  pp.  134-135.  58.  Kongress  der  Deutschen  Naturforscher 
und  Arzte.  Schuler,  Dr.  F.:  Die  Dberbiirdung  der  Arbeiterinnen  und 
Kinder  in  Fabriken. 

98 


STUDIES    OF    PHYSICAL   OVERSTRAIN    IN    INDUSTRY 

to  83  per  cent  were  fit.  In  another  canton,  Thurgau,  34 
to  39  per  cent  of  factory  workers  were  rejected  as  against 
12  to  23  per  cent  of  non-factory  workers. 

A  more  recent  study  of  German  workingmen  gives 
similar  figures.  It  is  stated  by  a  German  physician,*  on 
the  authority  of  a  local  magistrate  who  had  long  been  study- 
ing the  subject,  that  in  a  district  where  the  manufacturing 
of  nails  had  long  been  carried  on,  only  26  per  cent  of  the 
workers  liable  for  military  service  had  been  found  physically 
fit.  In  another  district,  where  buckles  were  extensively 
manufactured,  only  21  per  cent  of  the  young  men  were  fit. 
These  very  unfavorable  figures  are  said  to  be  due  to  long 
hours  and  great  monotony  of  work  requiring  the  constant 
repetition  of  mechanical  movements.  "The  avoidance  of 
such  dangers  to  the  future  defense  of  the  country,"  says  Dr. 
Ascher.  "lies  in  shorter  hours  of  work,  and  exercise  as  a 
preventive  of  some  of  these  physical  defects." 

The  report  of  the  French  factory  inspectors  in  1900  on 
the  question  of  night  work  also  dwells  upon  the  physical 
deterioration  observed  at  the  recruiting  offices.  They  state 
that  in  industrial  centers  the  proportion  of  rejections  on 
account  of  physical  unfitness  has  been  as  high  as  50  per  cent 
while  in  the  country  it  is  only  about  25  per  cent.f 

Doubtless  many  incidents  of  city  life  such  as  overcrowd- 
ing and  unsanitary  housing  help  to  swell  the  numbers  of 

*  Handbuch  der  Arbeiterwohlfahrt.  Edited  by  Dr.  Otto  Dammer. 
Bd.  I.  Ascher,  Dr.:  Beschadigungen  der  Arbeiter  bei  der  Arbeit,  p.  494. 
Stuttgart.  Enke,  1902. 

t  Rapports  presentes  a  M.  le  Ministre  de  Commerce,  de  1' Industrie, 
des  Postes  et  des  Telegraphes,  par  les  Inspecteurs  du  Travail.  La  Question 
de  rinterdiction  du  Travail  de  Nuit,  p.  73.  Paris,  Imprimerie  Nationale, 
1900. 

See  also,  Report  of  the  Eighth  International  Congress  of  Hygiene 
and  Demography,  Vol.  VII,  Section  VII,  Budapest,  1894.  Donath,  Dr. 
Julius  (Univ.  of  Budapest):  Der  Physische  Riickgang  der  Bevolkerung  in 
den  Modernen  Culturstaaten,  mit  besonderer  Riicksicht  auf  Oesterreich- 
Ungarn. 

Tenth  International  Congress  of  Hygiene  and  Demography,  Paris, 
1900.  Vaillant,  M.  Edouard,  (M.  R.  C.  S.  England):  Legislation  et  R6gle- 
mentation  du  Travail  au  point  de  Vue  de  I'Hygiene. 

British  Sessional  Papers,  1904,  Vol.  XXX 11.  Report  of  the  Inter- 
Departmental  Committee  on  Physical  Deterioration,  Vols.  I,  II,  and  HI. 

99 


FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 

physically  degenerate  workingmen  disclosed  by  the  military 
statistics.  But  the  most  careful  students  of  the  subject 
appear  to  lay  chief  stress  upon  the  "increasing  intensity  of 
production  and  industrial  over-pressure"  as  the  most  prom- 
inent cause  of  physical  deterioration  among  the  candidates 
examined. 


4.  LACK  OF  INFORMATION   IN  THE  UNITED  STATES 

Our  brief  survey  of  some  great  modern  industries  has 
shown  that  they  are  increasing  their  demands  upon  human 
energies.  The  effect  upon  the  workers  is  bound  to  be 
accordingly  complicated.  What  are  those  effects  today? 
Have  we  reliable  evidence  on  the  results  of  the  speed,  com- 
plexity, and  monotony  in  industry  which  we  have  been  con- 
sidering? It  is  undeniable  that  there  is  a  baffling  lack  of 
exact  knowledge  on  this  point  in  the  United  States.  Work- 
ing people  who  have  become  ill  or  worn  out  at  their  trades 
do  not  congregate  in  resorts  or  places  where  they  can  be 
recognized  as  victims  of  overpressure.  They  are  dispersed, 
lost  in  the  masses  of  our  population.  When  some  of  them 
emerge,  from  a  longer  or  shorter  struggle  for  existence,  into 
public  sight, — seeking  employment  or  aid  from  relief  so- 
cieties, in  hospitals  or  clinics,  or  more  tragically,  in  the 
criminal  courts, — the  original  cause  of  their  breakdown  in 
health  and  efficiency  is  often  entirely  obscure.  Even  the 
trade  unions  have,  as  yet,  kept  little  track  of  the  physical 
condition  of  their  members.  On  the  whole,  all  that  we  can 
learn  from  union  workers  are  individual  stories  of  break- 
down and  overstrain.  The  new  interest  of  the  printers  in 
the  disease  which  is  thinning  their  ranks,  tuberculosis,  and 
the  results  of  their  short  campaign  show  what  a  force  the 
unions  may  sometime  be  in  conserving  health.  But  as  yet 
they  have  few  exact  or  constructive  data. 

The  social  settlements  and  social  workers  have  not  much 
more.  Something,  it  is  true,  we  can  learn  as  to  the  effect 
of  industrial  strain,  from  the  personal  observations  of  persons 

100 


STUDIES    OF    PHYSICAL   OVERSTRAIN    IN    INDUSTRY 

who  are  in  friendly  relations  with  their  poorer  neighbors. 
They  see  the  early  age  at  which  the  once  vigorous  immigrant 
father  begins  to  slacken  in  the  race.  They  see  the  ill  effects 
of  youthful  overstrain  in  the  feeble  offspring  of  exhausted 
young  mothers.  They  see  the  revolt  from  monotonous 
work  in  the  reaction  of  working  children  against  any  re- 
straints.* 

But  for  statistical  or  definite  proof  of  the  causal  connec- 
tion between  industrial  overstrain  and  actual  illnesses,  v^e 
must  turn  to  other  countries,  where  similar  if  not  the  same 
conditions  prevail,  and  where  enlightened  physicians  have 
studied  wage-earners  who  have  broken  down  at  work. 

Such  medical  observation  is  at  best  still  rare  and  chaotic. 
But  in  the  records  and  experiences  of  the  foreign  sickness 
insurance  societies  real  light  is  shed  upon  the  subject.  They 
confirm  all  that  we  have  discussed  up  to  this  point. 


5.     MEDICAL  STUDY  OF  WORKING    PEOPLE  IN  FOREIGN 
INSURANCE  SOCIETIES 

The  German  workingmen's  insurance  system,  with  its 
sickness,  accident,  invalidity  and  old  age  benefits,  is  too  vast 
a  subject  to  be  more  than  touched  upon  here.  A  suggestion 
of  the  opportunities  it  offers  for  the  study  of  working  people 
and  their  disabilities  may  be  indicated  by  a  single  paragraph. 
According  to  Dr.  Zacher  (Leitfaden  zur  Arbeiterversicherung 
des  Deutschen  Reiches,  1906)  quoted  by  Professor  Hender- 
son,! 

" At  the  end  of  1905  in  all  about  70  million 

pensioners  (sick,  injured,  invalids  and  their  dependents)  had 
received  $1,200,000,000  in  benefits.  The  workmen  have 
contributed  less  than  half  of  the  premiums,  and  have  re- 
ceived $480,000,000  more  than  they  have  paid  out.  Prop- 
erty is  owned  to  the  amount  of  $408,000,000,   of  which 

*  Addams,  Jane:  The  Spirit  of  Youth  and  the  City  Streets.  New 
York,  The  Macmillan  Co.,  1909. 

t  Henderson,  Charles  R.:  Summary  of  European  Laws  on  Industrial 
Insurance.     Charities,  Dec.  7,  1907,  p.  1196. 

101 


FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 

almost  $120,000,000  have  been  invested  in  workmen's 
dwellings,  hospitals  and  convalescent  houses,  sanitaria, 
baths,  and  similar  institutions  of  welfare." 

The  sanitaria  of  the  German  State  Insurance  Depart- 
ment were  founded  for  the  treatment  of  insured  working 
people  who  have  fallen  ill.  Obviously,  to  cure  the  sick  and 
restore  their  working  capacity  is  more  economical  as  v/ell 
as  more  humane  than  to  continue  merely  to  pay  out  insur- 
ance. Accordingly,  in  1889,  a  law  was  passed  authorizing 
insurance  societies  to  invest  part  of  their  funds  in  hospitals 
and  sanitaria,  to  afford  the  best  facilities  for  speedy  recovery, 
and  as  far  as  possible  to  prevent  permanent  disabilities.* 
The  first  sanitarium  was  built  in  1894  at  Giitergutz  for  about 
100  chronic  male  cases.  Applications  for  treatment  were  so 
numerous  that  a  larger  sanitarium  for  both  men  and  wo- 
men was  next  erected  at  Beelitz,  near  Berlin. 

Aside  from  the  direct  benefit  to  working  people  from  the 
immediate  diagnoses  of  their  illnesses  and  the  treatment 
received,  the  establishment  of  the  sanitaria  has  been  of 
incalculable  value  in  stimulating  a  new  interest  in  the  under- 
lying causes  of  illness.  Hundreds  of  working  people  were 
gathered  together  for  treatment.  Many  were  found  suffer- 
ing from   the  same  disorders;    some  diseases  were  found 

*"0f  special  interest  is  the  item  of  medical  care.  In  the  five  years 
between  1900-1905  the  cost  of  treatment  rose  from  5,578,300  marks  (U,- 
394,575)  to  12,158,800  marks  ($3,039,700)  and  in  1907  the  figure  reached 
15,186,300  marks  ($3,796,575).  This  is  one  of  the  most  admirable  out- 
growths of  the  pension  system.  To  avoid  having  an  unnecessarily  large 
number  of  chronic  invalids  to  support,  the  insurance  system  has  developed 
a  great  preventive  and  restorative  movement.     .     .     . 

"Thousands  of  cases  are  treated  each  year  and  a  large  percentage 
of  those  who  ordinarily  would  have  become  permanent  public  charges  are 
either  fully  restored  to  strength,  or  at  any  rate  enabled  to  do  something 
towards  their  own  support.  There  is  at  present  great  enthusiasm  for  this 
system,  and  the  ailing  are  only  too  eager  to  take  advantage  of  the  opjxjrtu- 
nities  offered  them,  as  it  puts  at  their  disposal  medical  treatment,  rest,  food, 
shelter,  clothing,  sanitary  surroundings  and  care  which  otherwise  would 
be  far  beyond  their  means."  Frankel,  Lee  K.,  and  Dawson,  Miles  W.: 
Workingmen's  Insurance  in  Europe,  p.  356.  Russell  Sage  Foundation 
Publication.     New  York,  Charities  Publication  Committee,  1910. 

See  also  Kober,  Dr.  Geo.  M.:  Industrial  and  i^ersonal  Hygiene,  p.  90. 
Published  by  the  President's  Homes  Commission,  Washington,  D.  C,  1908. 

102 


STUDIES    OF    PHYSICAL   OVERSTRAIN    IN    INDUSTRY 

increasing  at  abnormally  rapid  rates.  Here  were  facts, 
for  the  first  time  not  only  accessible,  but  challenging  the 
curiosity  of  physicians.  Might  the  causes  for  such  com- 
mon ills  lurk  unrecognized  in  the  workers'  previous  lives? 
The  physicians  were  indeed  forced  to  conclude  that  some 
common  factors  in  the  lives  of  workingmen  and  women  must 
be  responsible  for  the  spread  of  certain  diseases.  What  were 
such  common  factors?  The  question  widens  from  the  purely 
medical  to  something  social  and  economic.  Prevention  is 
becoming  each  year  a  more  insistent  demand,  and  in  the 
interests  of  prevention  the  nature  of  the  worker's  occupation, 
at  which  more  than  half  of  his  waking  life  is  spent,  has  re- 
ceived a  new  medical  attention. 


6.  THE  INCREASE  OF  NERVOUS  DISORDERS 

Now  it  is  of  unusual  interest  for  our  special  inquiry, 
to  find  that  these  most  common  diseases  of  patients  in  the 
German  insurance  sanitaria  (not  including  tuberculosis) 
were  found  to  be  precisely  the  nervous  disorders  springing 
from  industrial  strain  and  overpressure. 

In  a  thoughtful  article,  two  physicians  formerly  of  the 
Beelitz  Sanitarium  write:* 

"The  increase  of  diseases  of  the  nervous  system  among 
working  people  in  the  last  decade  is  a  fact  that  is  now  firmly 
established  by  extensive  and  carefully  conducted  statistical 
inquiry.  This  is  most  clearly  evident  in  respect  to  the  psy- 
choses; but  there  is  also  no  doubt,  in  the  minds  of  the  most 
informed  authorities,  that  neurasthenia — which,  though  less 
menacing  than  insanity  to  the  efficiency  and  labor  capacity 
of  the  worker  is  still  sufficiently  serious  in  this  respect — is 
also  steadily  increasing  in  frequency  and  in  severity.  .  .  . 
Though,  for  some  years,  not  only  the  laity,  but  also  the  chief 
medical  experts  on  neurasthenia,  as  Lowenfeld  and  Bins- 
wanger,  overlooked  the  working  classes  in  relation  to  this 
disease,  this  attitude  is  now  radically  changed.     On  all  sides, 

*  Deutsche  Medizinische  Wochenschrift,  25.  May,  1905,  p.  820.  Dr. 
P.  Leubuscher  u.  Dr.  W.  Bibrowicz:    Die  Neurasthenie  in  Arbeiterkreisen. 

103 


FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 

in  the  clinics  and  physicians'  offices,  and  by  the  managers  of 
the  large  insurance  funds,  proofs  of  the  enormous  increase 
of  neurasthenia  as  a  cause  of  inability  to  work  are  being 
presented." 

In  a  recent  report,  the  physician-in-chief  of  the  Beelitz 
Sanitarium  says:* 

"In  the  course  of  the  year,  1815  men  and  803  women 
were  treated.     .     .     . 

"Of  the  1815  male  patients  who  were  discharged,  1206, 
in  round  numbers  almost  70  per  cent,  were  nervous  cases. 
While  in  some  the  exciting  cause  of  the  breakdown  might  be 
variously  explained,  in  by  far  the  largest  proportion  of  it 
arose  from  overstrain  of  their  daily  labor. 

"Of  the  female  cases,  more  than  one-seventh,  or  128 
of  803,  were  anaemic  and  chlorotic.  Among  these,  one-half 
of  all  suffered  from  nerve  strain  although  other  complica- 
tions might  be  present." 

The  serious  effects  upon  working  capacity  of  these 
nervous  disorders,  in  comparison  with  other  diseases,  may 
be  seen  in  the  following  figures,  giving  the  entire  number  of 
days  lost  from  work  on  account  of  sickness. f 


COMPARATIVE  NUMBER  OF   WORKING  DAYS    LOST  BY    PATIENTS 
AT  BEELITZ  SANITARIUM. —  BY  DISEASE  GROUPS 

Total  number  of  working  days  lost  front 
Disease  Groups  time  of  cessation  of  work  to  time  of  dis- 

charge from  Saniiariuni 

Men  IVomen 

Infections 60  373 

Poisonings 1,259 

Malnutritions 2,773  7,861 

Skin,  Muscles,  Joints,  etc 5,177  935 

Nervous  Disorders 44,965  25,075 

Dr.  Liibenau,  assistant  physician  at  Beelitz,  writes  in 

*  Verwaltungsbericht  der  Landesversicherungsanstalt  Berlin  fiir  das 
Jahr  1909,  p.  112.  Similar  statistics  may  be  found  in  the  reports  of  preced- 
ing years. 

t  Entire  table  not  reproduced. 

104 


STUDIES    OF    PHYSICAL   OVERSTRAIN    IN    INDUSTRY 

an  article  on  "  Heart  Disease  among  the  Working  People  of 
Berlin":* 

"In  coming  to  the  class  of  cardiac  neuroses  it  is  to  be 
remarked  that  nervous  affections  of  the  heart  among  Berlin 
workmen  are  very  common,  as  may  be  inferred  from  the 
extraordinary  prevalence  of  neurasthenia.  ...  In  most 
of  these  cases  of  simple  neurasthenia,  nervous  affections  of 
the  heart  are  the  rule.  There  is  the  sensation  of  palpita- 
tions, pain  in  the  region  of  the  heart,  a  feeling  of  great 
anxiety,  and  shortness  of  breath  after  exertion.  Such  dis- 
eases have  serious  importance  for  workers  on  account  of  car- 
diac complication. 

"The  cases  described  above  are  limited  to  those  in  which 
the  heart  symptoms  of  nervous  origin  present  the  dominating 
features  and  which,  therefore,  may  be  regarded  purely  as 
cases  of  cardiac  neuroses." 

Another  physician.  Dr.  Emil  Roth  of  Potsdam,  who  has 
been  prominent  in  the  study  of  diseases  of  working  people, 
saysif 

"  How  alarming  the  increase  of  anaemia  and  neurasthe- 
nia among  working  people  has  been  in  the  past  ten  years  is 
shown  by  the  records  of  the  sick  benefit  funds,  the  polyclinics, 
and  the  hospitals.  Many  medical  and  scientific  authorities 
have  emphasized  the  increase  of  neurasthenia  in  the  work- 
ing classes.  The  ample  materials  of  the  Berlin  State  Insur- 
ance Sanitarium  at  Beelitz  have  more  particularly  served  to 
prove  the  steady  increase  of  neurasthenia, — actually  from 
18  per  cent  in  1897  to  40  per  cent  in  1904.  Similar  figures 
are  shown  by  the  sanitarium  at  Zehlendorf,  where  the  highest 
percentage  of  neurotic  patients  were  handworkers  and  skilled 
workers,  with  whom  the  combination  of  physical  and  mental 
strain  reacted  destructively  on  the  nervous  system." 

Doubtless  such  an  increase  in  figures  is  due  to  improved 
diagnosis  as  well  as  to  the  actual  growth  of  neurasthenia 
among   working    people.     The    insurance    physicians    have 

*  Zeitschrift  fiir  Klinische  Medizin,  Bd.  60.  ..1906.  Aus  dem  Sana- 
torium der  Landesversicherungsanstalt  Berlin.  Uber  Herzerkrankungen 
in  der  Berliner  Arbeiterbevolkerung,  pp.  136  and  137. 

t  Roth,  Dr  Emil:  Ermudung  durch  Berufsarbeit.  Op.  cit.,  pp. 
613-614. 

105 


FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 

come  to  designate  as  neurasthenic,  illnesses  which  formerly 
were  called  heart  troubles,  indigestion,  and  the  like. 

But  whatever  the  exact  rate  of  increase  in  nervous  dis- 
orders, we  are  more  nearly  concerned  in  the  fact  of  their 
existence  today,  established  by  the  more  careful,  immediate 
diagnosis  of  wage-earners  by  the  insurance  physicians.  The 
liability  of  working  people  to  nervous  disorders  from  over- 
strain is  still  so  little  recognized  that  these  physicians  feel 
constrained  to  state  specifically  that  they  find  no  differences, 
as  to  clinical  appearances,  between  the  neurasthenic  work- 
man and  the  neurasthenic  patient  of  any  other  social  class. 
The  symptoms  and  conditions  are  the  same. 

They  are  no  less  assured  that  the  nervous  breakdown 
of  these  workers  is  to  be  ascribed  in  large  part  to  the  in- 
dustrial overpressure  to  which  they  are  subjected.  Thus 
a  recent  authoritative  American  study  of  foreign  insurance 
systems  reports:* 

"The  authorities  insist,  that  increase  of  sickness  is 
genuine  and  is  due  in  Germany  to  the  stress  and  strain  of 
modern  industry.  Hours  of  labor  are  from  eight  to  fifteen 
per  day.  The  large  stores,  for  instance,  open  at  8  a.  m. 
and  close  at  8  p.  m.,  allowing  one  hour  for  luncheon.  It  has 
been  ascertained  that  in  those  factories  where  the  hours  are 
longest,  the  greatest  number  of  cases  of  accident  and  sick- 
ness occur.  Many  workmen  continue  to  work  even  when 
really  incapacitated,  and  only  when  the  slack  season  comes 
do  they  take  advantage  of  the  opportunity  to  consult  a 
physician.  This,  it  is  asserted,  accounts  for  the  increase  of 
sickness  during  such  periods." 

Dr.  Roth,  quoted  above,  says  on  this  point  :t 

"The  psychic  factor  is  also  important  in  another  respect. 
With  the  progressive  division  of  labor,  work  has  become  more 
and  more  mechanical.  ...  A  definite  share  of  over- 
fatigue and  its  sequels,  especially  neurasthenia,  must  be 
ascribed  to  this  monotony;  to  the  absence  of  spontaneity 
or  joy   in  work.     .     .     .     But   that   monotony   is   also  of 

*  Frankel  and  Dawson,  op.  cit.,  p.  242. 
t  Roth,  op.  cit.,  pp.  611;  613-615. 

io6 


STUDIES    OF    PHYSICAL   OVERSTRAIN    IN    INDUSTRY 

importance  in  so  far  as  it  nullifies  pleasure  in  work,  thereby 
favoring  the  onset  of  fatigue,  must  also  be  admitted  from  a 
part  of  the  statistics.  So,  according  to  a  factory  inspector, 
the  effect  of  certain  light  work  with  corset  steels,  admitting 
of  no  break  for  several  hours,  was  distinctly  fatiguing;  the 
remedy  was  a  periodical  change  of  work  for  the  employees 
in  question. 

*  "Of  greater  importance  is  the  excessive  overstrain  of 
piece-work,  which  indeed  pays  better,  but  at  the  cost  of  a 
speed  and  intensity  of  work  which  was  formerly  unknown. 
That  these  injurious  effects  first  assail  the  weaker  part  of  the 
working  population  is  self-evident.  My  own  observations, 
especially  in  textile  mills,  confirmed  the  frequency  of  anaemia 
and  neurasthenia,  especially  among  young  women." 

An  observer  at  the  Zehlendorf  sanitarium  writes  in  a 
similar  vein:* 

"  It  seems  indubitable  that  factory  work  considerably 
outweighs  other  occupations  in  the  sense  that  it  provides  the 
greatest  number  of  factors  tending  to  produce  the  neuroses 
of  work  in  the  industrial  populations,  and  I  am  compelled 
to  conclude  that  modern  industry,  continually  developing 
as  it  is  on  more  and  more  colossal  lines,  constitutes  a  danger- 
ous and  potent  cause  for  a  continuous  increase  of  neuras- 
thenia and  hysteria." 

Dr.  Treves  of  Turin,  who  unites  with  physiological  and 
psychological  knowledge  a  keen  insight  into  industrial  con- 
ditions, sums  up  the  whole  question  when  he  saysif 

"Does  what  physicians  call  'exhaustion'  (surmenage) 
really  exist  in  the  working  population?  This  question,  which 
was  not  thought  of  in  the  earliest  studies  of  neurasthenia, 
since  neurasthenic  conditions  were  supposed  to  be  ailments 
of  the  liberal  professions  and  those  engaged  in  intense  in- 
tellectual application  exclusively,  has  today  been  answered 
by  the  medical  profession  in  the  affirmative;   the  daily  ob- 

*  Schonhals,  Paul:  tjber  die  Ursachen  der  Neurasthenic  u.  Hysteria 
bei  Arbeitern,  p.  26.  Berlin,  1906.  (A  Study  of  200  Cases  in  the  Work- 
ingman's  Sanitarium  at  Zehlendorf.) 

t  Fourteenth  International  Congress  of  Hygiene  and  Demography, 
Vol.  II,  Sec.  IV,  Berlin,  1907,  pp.  626-627. 

See  also  Part  11  of  this  volume,  pp.  163-185. 

107 


FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 

servation  of  workers  in  hospital  and  dispensary  has  led  to 
this  conclusion.  .  .  .  Overstrain  resulting  from  occu- 
pation does  exist;  it  is  also  entirely  possible  to  combat  it; 
there  is,  in  short,  a  problem  of  overwork.     .     .     . 

"This  overstrain,  which  physiologists,  psychologists,  clini- 
cians, and  above  all  nerve  specialists  and  alienists,  encounter  so 
often  as  to  be  no  longer  deceived  by  it,  does  not  present  a 
well-defmed  morbid  picture;  but  it  is  a  slow  deviation,  often 
obscured  by  its  very  slowness,  and  predisposing  to  illness  of 
any  nature;  it  is  the  borderland  of  illness." 

It  is  extremely  interesting  to  find  a  similar  stress  upon 
the  occurrence  of  nervous  disorders  in  the  detailed  testi- 
mony of  the  distinguished  physicians  called  in  by  the  Cana- 
dian Royal  Commission,  which  investigated  the  telephone 
service  in  Toronto  a  few  years  ago.  Many  of  them,  in  their 
practice,  had  treated  telephone  operators  for  eye  strain, 
headache,  and  affections  of  the  ears.  But  the  chief  emphasis 
in  their  testimony  was  laid,  not  upon  such  specific  injuries 
to  the  special  sense  organs,  but  upon  the  detriment  to  the 
operator's  total  health,  particularly  to  her  nervous  organiza- 
tion. 

"The  service  is  such  a  strain  upon  the  sight,  hearing, 
speech,  and  muscles  of  the  arms  and  body,  that  it  is  nerve 
exhausting," 

testified  one  physician*  of  eighteen  years'  practice,  associate 
professor  of  clinical  medicine  in  Toronto  University. 

Another  physician  of  thirty-one  years'  practice,  testi- 
fiedf  that  he  had  attended  employes  suffering 

"from  nervous  debility  occasioned  by  the  strain  of  that 
particular  work  upon  the  nervous  system,  which  includes 
the  senses  of  hearing,  speaking,  seeing,  and  using  arms, 
causing  too  much  strain  upon  the  nerve  center.  ...  In 
a  number  of  cases  of  young  ladies  whom  1  had  known  as 
the  physician  of  the  family  before  they  entered  into  the  tele- 

*  Dr.  William  B.  Thistle.  Report  of  the  Royal  Commission.  Op. 
cit.,  p.  71. 

t  Dr.  William  Britten  of  the  University  of  Toronto,  and  of  the  Medical 
Council,     ibid.,  pp.  66-67. 

108 


STUDIES    OF    PHYSICAL    OVERSTRAIN    IN    INDUSTRY 

phone  service  and  who  were  apparently  healthy,  after  a 
length  of  service  in  the  telephone  office  1  had  to  prescribe 
for  them  for  various  types  of  nervous  debility,  and  my  advice 
to  the  majority  of  them  was  to  discontinue  the  work.  The 
constant  listening  and  the  keen  buzzing  means  a  state  of 
tension  of  the  nervous  system  all  the  time;  fifteen  minutes' 
relief  would  be  a  very  slight  one.  1  have  quite  often  seen 
nervous  hysteria  from  this  nervous  strain  to  the  telephone 
girls." 

The  medical  superintendent  of  the  Toronto  Asylum 
testified:* 

"Work  is  automatic  only  to  a  limited  extent.  It  re- 
quires a  mental  effort  every  time.  Nervous  strain  is  intense 
and  would  react  on  the  physical  health  in  a  marked  way 
after  three  years'  service,  and  might  pass  on  to  the  next 
generation  in  a  more  striking  way  than  even  in  the  present 
generation.  1  am  basing  that  statement  on  my  every  day 
experiences  with  just  such  cases,  having  an  experience  on 
that  kind  of  thing  for  several  years." 

The  professor  of  therapeutics,  and  teacher  in  connection 
with  the  diseases  of  the  eye  and  ear  in  Toronto  University, 
stated  :t 

"  The  result  of  work  would  be  nerve  fag,  and  might  be 
a  nervous  breakdown.  .  .  .  We  know  practically  that 
changes  in  illumination  from  dark  to  light  do  irritate  the 
optic  nerve,  and  that  is  going  on  all  the  time.  .  .  . 
Flashing  of  the  light  has  an  irritating  effect  and  is  in  that  way 
injurious.  The  nerves  governing  the  extra  ocular  muscles 
which  focus  the  eye  upon  the  object  looked  upon,  are  the 
nerves  where  the  greatest  part  of  the  strain  comes.  The 
sound  kept  up  for  hours  must  have  an  effect  on  the  auditory 
nerves,  and  if  for  long  hours,  an  injurious  effect  might  cause 
deafness.  The  possibility  of  receiving  shocks  would  add 
to  the  nerve  strain,  effect  on  vocal  organs  not  much.  The 
effect  upon  the  nervous  system  is  through  the  nerves  of  the 
eye  and  the  auditory  nerves;  reaching  is  subsidiary;  operat- 
ing together  causes  the  difficulty." 

*  Dr.  Charles  R.  Clark.     Ibid.,  p.  72. 

t  Dr.  J.  M.  McCallum.    Ibid.,  p.  72. 

109 


FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 

Similar  statements  were  repeated  by  all  the  physicians 
who  testified.  They  concluded  that  the  only  preventive  was 
to  regulate  most  carefully  the  hours  of  work  so  taxing  to 
women's  physical  powers;  and  above  all,  to  break  the  work 
bv  proper  relief  periods  for  rest  and  recuperation.  A  con- 
tinuous stretch  of  work  without  rest,  for  even  a  comparatively 
short  time,  was  unanimously  condemned,  precisely  on  the 
ground  of  the  excessive  nervous  strain. 

"  It  is  the  length  of  time,  rather  than  the  number  of  calls 
that  1  emphasize." 

"  It  is  the  period  that  she  is  on  duty  with  her  faculties 
on  the  alert  constantly  that  is  more  important  than  the 
volume  of  work  done." 

Such  is  the  sentiment  repeatedly  expressed. 

The  only  American  publication  on  this  subject  known  to 
the  writer,  are  some  notes  by  a  St.  Louis  physician  on  the 
strikingly  large  percentage  of  neurasthenics  found  among 
7,000  garment  workers,  during  a  period  of  ten  years,  at  the 
St.  Louis  Jewish  Dispensary.*  This  physician,  without 
going  further  afield,  limits  his  conclusions  strictly  to  the 
"stubborn  fact"  observed:  "that  20  to  30  per  cent  of  these 
7,000  garment  workers  applying  for  relief  were  found  to  be 
subjects  of  neurasthenia,"  meaning  by  that  term  the  "clin- 
ical entity"  understood  among  neurologists.  He  draws  at- 
tention to  two  phases  of  their  employment  which  seem  to 
have  a  "  very  positive  influence  on  the  production  of  neuras- 
thenia." These  are  the  irregularity  of  employment  in  the 
garment  trades  and  piece-work — both  of  them  common  inci- 
dents of  industrial  life  upon  whose  sinister  possibilities  we 
have  elsewhere  dwelt. 

*  Schwab,  Sidney  I.  (Professor  of  Nervous  and  Mental  Diseases,  St. 
Louis  University):  Neurasthenia  Among  Garment  Workers.  American 
Labor  Legislation  Review,  Vol.  1,  No.  1,  p.  27.     (January,  1911.) 


I  10 


STUDIES    OF    PHYSICAL    OVERSTRAIN    IN    INDUSTRY 

7.     GENERAL  PREDISPOSITION  TO  DISEASE 

The  close  causal  connection  between  overfatigue  and 
certain  types  of  nervous  disease  must  not  obscure  the  much 
larger  and  more  significant  role  of  fatigue  in  undermining 
health,  to  which  Professor  Treves  refers  above  as  the  "bor- 
derland of  illness."  Fatigue  not  only  causes  specific  ills; 
its  victims  are  predisposed  to  disease  in  general.  It  is  today 
almost  a  truism  that  health  and  freedom  from  illness  spring 
from  a  maximum  power  of  resistance.  Not  absence  of  ex- 
posure but  strength  of  resistance  is  what  keeps  us  well.  It 
is  the  peculiar  misery  of  the  exhausted  that  they  fall  victims 
to  the  first  infection  or  minor  ailment  which  they  may  happen 
to  encounter.  This  is  apparent  in  everyday  life;  and  in  the 
laboratory,  animal  experimentation  tends  to  show  that 
fatigue  markedly  diminishes  the  power  of  the  blood  to  over- 
come bacteria  and  their  toxic  products.* 

The  danger  of  even  indirectly  spreading  infectious 
diseases  needs  no  emphasis.  Work  which  exhausts,  and  so 
contributes  to  the  spread  of  infections  and  epidemics,  is 
clearly  a  public  as  well  as  a  private  menace.  On  this  ground, 
the  overstrain  of  thousands  of  workingmen  and  working- 
women  which  keeps  a  large  part  of  our  population  in  fit 
condition  to  take  and  spread  contagions,  should  be  considered 
as  intolerable  as  any  other  provocation  of  epidemics. 

But  even  careful  observers  are  apt  to  underrate  or  ignore 
the  predominating  influence  of  overfatigue  in  causing  the 
lowered  vitality  and  the  minor  ailments  of  working  people. 
Our  analysis  of  exhaustion  as  due  to  the  accumulation  of 
fatigue  products  and  an  excessive  drain  on  men's  energies, 

*  Charrin  and  Roget:  Archives  de  Physiologic  normale  et  patholo- 
gique,  1890.     No.  2,  p.  273. 

Wetzel,  G.:  Pfliiger's  Archiv,  1900.     Bd.  82,  p.  505. 

Cohnstein,  Dr.  Wilhelm:  Virchow's  Archiv,  1892.     Bd.  130,  p.  332. 

De  Sandro,  Domenico:  Riforma  Med.,  1910,  XXXV,  pp.  841  and  871 
Reviewed  in  the  Journal  of  the  American  Medical  Association,  Vol.  LVl, 
No.  I,  p.  46.     (Jan.  7,  1911.) 

Abbott,  A.  C.,  and  Gildersleeve,  N.:  The  Influence  of  Muscular  Fatigue 
and  of  Alcohol  on  Certain  of  the  Normal  Defenses.  Univ.  of  Penn.  Medical 
Bui.  Vol.  23,  pp.  169-181.     1910. 

1  I  I 


FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 

will  have  been  useless  if  it  does  not  help  us  to  realize  anew  how 
health  hangs  upon  the  metabolic  balance;  how  vitality  and 
resistance  spring  buoyant  from  physiologic  equilibrium;  and 
how  fatally  overstrain  tips  the  scales  down. 

8.  A  NEW  MEDICAL  SCRUTINY  OF  OVERWORK 

The  physiological  study  of  overwork  must  be  sharply 
differentiated  from  the  longer  established  study  of  special 
trade  diseases.  Medical  interest  in  the  special  diseases  of 
various  trades  is  of  long  standing,  and  has  been  growing 
steadily  since  the  Italian  Ramazzini  first  drew  attention  to 
the  diseases  of  working  people  over  200  years  ago.*  The 
literature  of  special  trade  illnesses — lead  poisoning,  phos- 
phorous poisoning,  arsenic  poisoning,  anthrax,  diseases  from 
lint,  fluff,  dust,  humidity,  extremes  of  temperature,  and  the 
like — is  enormous,  a  recent  partial  bibliography  in  regard  to 
tuberculosis  alone  filling  almost  twenty  printed  pages  of 
close  type.f 

In  every  country  where  sickness  insurance  exists,  the 
study  of  trade  diseases  is  bound  to  grow  steadily.  Day  by 
day  and  year  by  year  many  physicians  attached  to  insurance 
societies  have  opportunities  of  observing  and  treating  cases 
of  industrial  disease.  Thus,  for  instance,  in  1908  the  largest 
sickness  insurance  society  in  Germany,  the  Local  Society  of 
Leipzig,  employed  under  contract  410  physicians,  137  spe- 
cialists, 23  dentists,  55  druggists,  and  20  opticians. t  Trade 
diseases,  indeed,  have  become  so  important  a  branch  of 
medical  practice  abroad  that  the  establishment  of  special 
chairs  at  universities  for  the  training  of  specialists  in  these 
branches  has  been  advocated. §     Medical  courses  on  simula- 

*  Ramazzini,  B.:    De  Morbis  Artificium  Diatriba,  Modena,  1701. 

t  Bulletin  of  the  U.  S.  Bureau  of  Labor,  No.  79,  1908.  Hoffman, 
Frederick  L.:    Mortality  from  Consumption  in  Dusty  Trades. 

t  Frankel  and  Dawson,  op.  cit.,  p.  258. 

§  Congres  Internationale  des  Assurance  Sociales.  Rome,  1908,  Session 
8.  Peyser,  Dr.  Alfred  (Berlin):  Die  Soziale  Medizin  als'Gegenstand  des 
Unterrichts.  Sternberg,  Prof.  Dr.  Max  (Vienna):  Die  Soziale  Medizin 
als  Besonderer  Unterrichts  Gegenstand. 

I  12 


STUDIES    OF    PHYSICAL   OVERSTRAIN    IN    INDUSTRY 

tion,  or  the  attempts  of  working  people  to  counterfeit  trade 
diseases,  are  even  nov/  regularly  given  by  European  pro- 
fessors. In  March,  1910,  the  first  clinic  for  the  treatment  of 
industrial  diseases  was  dedicated  in  Milan. 

But  in  all  this,  the  emphasis  upon  fatigue  and  the  causal 
connection  between  overwork  and  disease  has  until  recently 
been  slight.  Now,  for  the  first  time,  in  the  workmen's  in- 
surance system,  the  sinister  role  of  overwork  is  beginning 
to  show  itself  unmistakably.  The  medical  observation  of 
fatigue  in  industry,  even  abroad,  is  recent  and  still  quite  dis- 
organized. There  is  abundant  complaint  that  the  vast  op- 
portunities of  investigation  among  insured  working  people 
are  not  yet  utilized;  that  the  present  methods  of  observation 
are  inadequate,  and  that  standards  are  lacking  for  diagnoses 
of  illnesses  and  their  industrial  causes.  But  the  essential 
fact  is  that  a  new  medical  scrutiny  of  modern  work  and  its 
strain  on  human  energies  has  at  least  begun.  It  centers  on 
fatigue  as  itself  a  danger  of  occupation. 

This  new  medical  emphasis  on  industrial  fatigue  and 
overwork  was  conspicuous  at  the  last  meeting  of  the  In- 
ternational Congress  of  Hygiene  held  at  Berlin  in  1907. 
Discussions  of  fatigue  and  exhaustion  as  dangers  of  occupa- 
tion were  given  a  new  place  of  prominence.*  Even  earlier, 
this  congress  of  physicians  and  scientists  had  devoted  some 
attention  to  the  subject  at  its  meetings  in  Budapest,  1894, 
and  in  Paris,  1900.  At  its  meeting  in  Brussels,  1903,  the 
congress  urged  governments  to  study  overfatigue  as  one  of 
the  most  fertile  sources  of  ill  health  among  working  people. 
This  recommendation  was  quoted  and  repeated  in  hearings 
before  the  British  Interdepartmental  Committee  on  Phy- 
sical Degeneration  in  1904. 

The  Italians,  among  whom  the  laboratory  studies  of 
fatigue  have  been  so  extensively  carried  on,  take  a  prominent 
part  in  this  new  research.  They  call  it  inclusively  Patalogia 
del  Lavoro,  pathology  of  work,  or  the  study  of  all  those  factors 

*  Ermiidung  durch  Berufsarbeit.  Discussed  by  Dr.  Z.  Treves  of 
Turin,  Dr.  E.  Roth  of  Potsdam,  and  others. 

8  113 


FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 

in  work  which  result  in  abnormal  or  pathologic  consequences 
to  the  human  organism.  As  Dr.  Giglioli  of  Florence,  himself 
one  of  the  young  Italians  at  work  in  this  new  field,  says:* 

"The  first  vague  Ramazzinian  conception  of  trade  dis- 
eases has  developed  into  the  wider  and  more  definite  theory 
of  the  pathology  of  labor.  This  most  important  division  of 
social  medicine  has  developed  in  a  very  short  time  into  a  well 
organized  and  distinct  study.  It  is  not,  nor  does  it  tend  to 
become,  what  is  popularly  called  a  'specialty,'  but  it  has  the 
dignity  of  being  considered  the  most  modern  branch  of 
medical  study,  and  has  its  ardent  expounders,  clinics,  labora- 
tories, and  students. 

"It  is  a  very  modern  development,  stimulated  by  the 
most  recent  scientific  researches  and  acquisitions  in  hygiene, 
economics,  and  politics.  Through  it,  new  methods  of  study 
have  developed,  by  which  not  only  the  typical  trade  diseases 
but  all  the  factors  which  bear  upon  the  health  conditions  of 
wage-earners  are  estimated  and  studied  clinically  and  ex- 
perimentally.    .     .     . 

"  Modern  pathology  thus  unites  study  of  fatigue  and 
nutrition  with  the  most  recent  theories  of  predisposition  to 
infection  induced  in  formerly  healthy  organisms.  It  recon- 
ciles the  very  latest  theories  of  neuro-pathology  with  the 
latest  ideas  about  the  neurasthenics  of  labor.  While  it  does 
not  attempt  to  invade  the  other  branches  of  medicine,  it 
does  draw  from  them  facts  and  data  with  which  to  re-en- 
force its  own  postulates  on  social  economic  methods.  This 
most  modern  development  may  appear  to  some  too  vague 
and  general,  to  others  too  restricted,  but  it  is  certainly  gain- 
ing ground  and  growing  continually  more  complete  and 
definite." 

This  new  emphasis  is  likewise  shown  in  the  able  little 
Italian  monthly  called  //  Ramanini,  from  which  the  above 
is  quoted.  This  is  a  journal  of  social  medicine,  started  in 
1907.  In  the  admirable  bibliographies  of  current  socio- 
medical-Iiterature  which  //  Ramanini  publishes  for  the 
International  Commission  on  Trade  Diseases  (founded  1906), 

*  II  Ramaiiini.  Giornale  Italiano  di  Medicina  Sociale.  Anno  I.  Fasc. 
12.  (December,  1907.)  Giglioli,  Dr.  G.  Y.  (R.  Istituto  di  Clinica  Medica, 
Firenze):  Nuovo  Ricerche  e  Nuovo  Conquiste  nel  Campo  della  Patologia  e 
del'  Igiene. 

114 


STUDIES    OF    PHYSICAL    OVERSTRAIN    IN    INDUSTRY 

prominent  place  is  given  to  the  section  headed  "  Surmenage," 
or  exhaustion. 

In  the  "pathology  of  labor"  belong  indeed  the  trade 
diseases  with  their  train  of  temporary  and  chronic  ills.  But 
the  first  place  is  taken  by  those  disturbances  of  metabolism, 
those  self-generated  poisons  of  fatigue,  which  are  common  not 
only  to  workers  in  so-called  dangerous  occupations,  but  to 
every  man,  woman,  and  child  who  breathes  and  works. 


9.  OPPORTUNITIES  FOR  SUCH  STUDY  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES 

In  the  almost  total  absence,  in  this  country,  of  medi- 
cal emphasis  upon  the  pathogenic  nature  of  industrial  over- 
fatigue, it  is  significant  to  read  Professor  Irving  Fisher's 
note  in  his  Report  on  National  Vitality,  prepared  for  the 
National  Conservation  Commission.     He  says:* 

"The  present  working  day  is  a  striking  example  of  the 
failure  to  conserve  national  vitality.  .  .  .  The  fatigue 
of  workmen  is  largely  traceable  to  their  long  work  day.     .     . 

"The  relatively  slight  impairment  of  efficiency  due  to 
overfatigue  leads  to  more  serious  impairment.  Just  as  minor 
ailments  prove  to  have  an  unsuspected  importance  when 
considered  as  gateways  to  serious  illness,  so  the  inefficiency 
from  overfatigue  is  vested  with  great  significance.  Obviously, 
if  overfatigue  would  be  reduced  to  a  minimum,  this  reduction 
would  carry  with  it  the  prevention  of  the  major  part  of  minor 
ailments,  which  in  turn  would  lead  to  a  great  reduction  in 
more  serious  illnesses,  and  this  finally  would  lead  to  a  great 
reduction  in  mortality.  A  typical  succession  of  events  is, 
first  fatigue,  then  colds,  then  tuberculosis,  then  death.  Pre- 
vention, to  be  effective,  must  begin  at  the  beginning." 

Back  of  the  great  scourges  and  acute  contagions,  back 
even  of  the  minor  ailments  which  often  precede  them,  lies 
the  lowered  vitality,  the  unbalanced  metabolism,  to  which, 
as  we  have  seen,  overwork  so  largely  contributes.  Serious 
discussion  or  consideration  of  this  fatal   sequence  among 

*  Bulletin  of  the  Committee  of  One  Hundred  on  National  Health, 
No.  30,  pp.  45  and  47,  July,  1909. 

JI5 


FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 

working  people  is  rare  indeed.  It  is  touched  on  with  peculiar 
insight  by  Dr.  Edward  T.  Devine  in  his  stirring  presentation 
of  a  dark  topic,  "Misery  and  Its  Causes." 

From  the  point  of  view  of  social  welfare,  Dr.  Devine 
holds  the  minor  ailments  responsible  for  far  greater  misery 
among  the  poor  than  has  been  realized  or  ministered  to  by 
the  medical  profession,  in  comparison  with  the  great  plagues 
and  the  more  acutely  contagious  diseases. 

"  I  suppose,"  he  says,*  "that  no  medical  authority  would 
think  of  grouping  together  such  diseases  as  I  have  named 
(rheumatism,  indigestion,  influenza,  colds,  catarrh,  bronchitis 
and  constipation),  as  from  the  medical  point  of  view  they  may 
have  nothing  in  common;  but  for  us  they  have  this  in  com- 
mon, that  they  increase  to  an  enormous,  though  uncalculable, 
extent  the  sum  total  of  misery  which  men,  women  and  chil- 
dren have  to  bear;  they  prevent  that  enjoyment  of  the  good 
things  of  life  to  which  we  are  fully  entitled  for  the  extra- 
ordinary amount  of  hard  work  that  we  do,  by  the  bounty  of 
nature  and  the  abundance  of  our  inherited  wealth." 

It  is  a  new  thing  to  have  such  "minor"  sufferings  named 
as  "altogether  undervalued  causes  of  misery."  It  is  a  new 
thing,  too,  to  have  their  importance  squarely  faced,  as 
follows: 

"  I  challenge  the  medical  schools  and  laboratories,  the 
institutions  of  research  and  family  physicians,  as  not  having 
paid  sufficient  attention  to  these  disabilities;  but  beyond 
this,  and  as  a  more  fundamental  diagnosis  of  the  difficulty,  1 
challenge  society  as  having  permitted  here  very  grave  mal- 
adjustments in  not  having  appreciated  the  importance  of 
ailments  of  this  kind,  and  for  this  reason  not  having  been 
willing  to  pay  for  the  service  of  investigating  their  cause, 
their  character  and  their  cure,  or  for  the  service  of  treating 
them  in  time."t 

Our  study  of  fatigue  would  lead  us  to  go  a  step  farther 
than  Dr.  Devine.     He  is  presenting,  with  keen  and  sympa- 

*  Devine,  Edward  T.:    Misery  and   Its  Causes,  p.  84.     New  York, 
The  Macmillan  Company,  1909. 
t  Ibid.,  p.  83. 

I  \6 


STUDIES    OF    PHYSICAL   OVERSTRAIN    IN    INDUSTRY 

thetic  insight,  tiie  causes  of  misery  for  the  "out-of-health, 
out-of-work,  out-of-friends."  We  are  concerned  primarily 
with  the  other  end  of  the  industrial  scale — the  overworked,  the 
overstrained,  the  overwhelmed.  We  are  regarding  Work  in  a 
broad  physiological  sense.  In  the  discussion  which  follows 
we  shall  narrow  our  field  further  to  those  for  whom  legisla- 
tion is  today  most  urgent  and  practicable,  the  working 
women  and  children  in  need  of  state  protection.  But  at  this 
point,  in  behalf  of  all  human  workers — just  because  they 
are  human! — we  would  paraphrase  Dr.  Devine's  words  and 
challenge  the  medical  schools  and  laboratories,  the  institutes 
of  research  and  family  physicians,  as  not  having  paid  suffi- 
cient attention  to  industrial  overstrain  and  the  intolerably 
long  hours  of  labor,  which,  through  the  actual  poisons  of 
fatigue,  must  be  regarded  as  breeding  and  augmenting  the 
so-called  minor  ailments  of  working  people. 

And  beyond  this,  and  as  a  more  fundamental  diagnosis 
of  the  difficulty  (to  paraphrase  Dr.  Devine  further)  we  chal- 
lenge society  as  not  having  appreciated  the  importance  of 
industrial  overwork  and  exhaustion,  and  for  this  reason  hav- 
ing allowed  them  to  persist  from  generation  to  generation 
without  study  of  their  effects  or  of  the  violence  done  to  man's 
natural  endowment — his  physiologic  mechanism. 

Abroad,  a  new  correlation  of  such  scientific  study  and  the 
industrial  regime  has  at  least  begun.  It  has  not  yet  gone  as 
far  as  has  the  scientific  scrutiny  of  overwork  in  school  chil- 
dren. Such  observation  of  school  children — their  capacities, 
attentions,  fatigues — has  in  the  last  few  years  become  a 
favorite  theme  of  both  pedagogues  and  physiologists.  It  is 
concerned  chiefly  with  the  fatigue  of  attention  due  to  long 
school  hours,  and  the  reaction  of  such  fatigue  upon  the  child's 
total  health.  Scientific  tests  and  measurements  of  fatigue 
in  school  children  have  accordingly  been  carried  on  for  some 
years  past  with  more  or  less  success,  and  a  vast  amount  of 
literature  on  the  subject  exists  today. 

For  effective  prevention,  we  need  precisely  a  new  study 
of  undue  fatigue  in  industry.     Both  for  a  more  rational  or- 

117 


FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 

ganization  of  business  and  for  intelligent  legislation  we  need 
definite  knowledge  of  the  effects  of  such  industrial  facts  as 
those  which  we  have  briefly  reviewed.  We  need  to  know, 
from  systematic  and  continuous  study,  what  are  the  actual 
results  of  speeding,  and  piece-work,  monotony  and  mechan- 
ical rhythms,  and  the  rest.  The  workday,  as  we  have  seen, 
is  too  long  when  it  goes  beyond  physiological  limits;  in  other 
words,  when  no  adequate  margin  of  rest  is  allowed  for  tissue 
repair.  We  need  to  know  for  the  various  trades,  and  for  the 
various  operations  in  those  trades,  what  is  an  adequate 
margin  of  rest.  We  need  to  know  whether  nervous  diseases 
are  on  the  increase  among  industrial  workers  in  this  country 
as  they  are  reported  to  be  abroad.  We  need  to  transfer  into 
the  factory  and  workshop  the  investigations  into  fatigue 
which  have  yielded  so  rich  a  harvest  in  the  laboratories.  We 
need,  above  all,  men  of  the  highest  caliber  and  professional 
standing  to  plan  such  investigations  along  broad  inclusive 
lines,  so  as  to  discount  what  is  transient  and  temporary,  and 
to  obtain  the  underlying  facts,  for  the  conservation  of  health 
and  efficiency. 

Many  enlightened  employers  already  provide  medical 
supervision  of  the  hygiene  of  their  employes,  in  the  interests 
of  efficiency.  These  agencies  could  well  be  used  for  such 
systematic  and  continuous  study  as  we  have  advocated. 
Once  the  importance  of  the  subject  is  realized,  once  over- 
strain is  recognized  as  itself  a  danger  of  occupation,  study  of 
overwork  and  its  sequelae  must  follow. 

Another  source  of  information  on  the  effects  of  industrial 
overpressure  has  been  hitherto  unused.  This  is  in  the  records 
of  the  clinics  and  hospitals  where  working  people  are  treated. 
In  this  country  we  have  not  the  opportunities  afforded  by  the 
foreign  insurance  systems  to  study  sick  and  convalescent 
wage-earners.  But  from  the  thousands  of  working  men  and 
women  to  whom  the  hospitals  minister  yearly,  could  they 
not  learn  those  antecedent  facts  as  to  the  strain  of  employ- 
ment to  which,  as  we  have  seen,  foreign  insurance  physicians 
have  been  forced  to  turn  in  the  interests  of  prevention? 

118 


STUDIES    OF    PHYSICAL    OVERSTRAIN    IN    INDUSTRY 

The  social  service  work  established  in  connection  with  vari- 
ous hospitals,  precisely  for  prevention,  is  a  first  step  in  this 
direction.  The  out-patient  department  in  many  hospitals 
follows  patients  into  their  homes  in  order  to  make  sure  that 
the  benefits  of  hospital  treatment  are  not  immediately  un- 
done by  unhygienic  living.  This  work  could  well  be  supple- 
mented by  obtaining  and  keeping  accurate  records  of  the 
industrial  as  well  as  the  medical  history  of  patients.  No 
better  work  for  prevention  could  be  done  than  by  attempt- 
ing to  discover  those  elements  in  industry  which  contribute 
directly  to  the  illnesses  of  thousands  of  workers  and  carry 
them  year  by  year  in  throngs  to  the  hospitals. 

Through  the  nurses  who  visit  patients  in  their  homes  and 
establish  confidential  relations  with  them,  the  machinery  for 
such  an  additional  inquiry  is  available.  The  medical  ex- 
amination and  record  of  patients  at  the  hospitals  give  their 
physical  histories  in  full.  An  invaluable  additional  body  of 
information  could  be  secured  if  detailed  records  were  system- 
atically kept  during  a  series  of  years  showing  the  previous 
trade  history  of  patients:  their  previous  hours  of  work,  the 
length  of  overtime  work  at  rush  seasons,  their  night  work  if 
any,  the  machinery  or  processes  at  which  they  were  employed 
before  illness,  and  many  similar  questions.  These  histories, 
to  be  accurate,  would  have  to  be  corroborated  by  a  separate 
industrial  investigation  of  previous  places  of  employment, 
to  confirm  the  workers'  accounts  of  themselves.  Such  an 
investigation  could  be  kept  within  manageable  limits  by 
confining  it  to  the  year  or  two  years  previous  to  the  workers' 
illness. 

To  learn  and  to  accumulate  the  histories  of  patients  suffer- 
ing from  specific  trade  diseases  would  obviously  throw  light 
upon  many  dangerous  occupations  and  dangerous  processes 
of  manufacture  as  yet  unstudied  in  this  country.  To  learn 
and  accumulate  the  histories  of  those  who  have  been  the 
victims  of  industrial  overpressure  would  be  a  no  less  valu- 
able contribution  to  the  complex  study  of  industrial  fatigue. 
This  can  never  be  done  by  collecting  a  few  cases.     The 

1 19 


FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 

value  of  such  an  investigation  would  be  cumulative,  if  it 
could  prove,  after  a  series  of  years,  by  large  numbers  of  indi- 
vidual and  well  authenticated  cases,  the  important  part 
played  by  overstrain  in  the  production  of  disease  and  ill- 
health  among  wage-earners.* 

Such  case  study  of  wage-earners  who  have  succumbed 
to  illness  has  a  marked  advantage  over  the  more  general  study 
of  wage-earners  at  work.  What  we  seek  to  know  is  precisely 
what  is  implied  in  the  Italian  phrase  "  the  pathology  of  labor." 
Just  as  in  medicine  the  study  of  pathology  goes  hand  in  hand 
with  the  study  of  physiology — the  morbid  as  well  as  the 
normal  reactions  often  yielding  most  suggestive  clues — so  in 
industry,  not  only  the  physiological  but  the  pathological 
aspects  must  be  scrutinized:  the  infections,  anaemias,  nervous 
disorders,  pelvic  derangements  in  women,  and  the  rest. 

It  is,  in  the  last  resort,  those  who  succumb  who  must  de- 
termine the  dangerousness  of  any  trade.  Thus,  for  instance, 
many  men  no  doubt  can  and  do  work  in  caissons,  without 
contracting  the  dreaded  "bends."  Yet  the  legislation  which 
prescribes  special  rules  of  hygiene  for  caisson  work  is  based 
on  the  victims,  not  the  survivors.  Hence  it  is  essential  to 
learn  from  a  scientific  observation  of  the  victims  of  industry 
— possibly  in  hospitals  and  clinics  as  suggested  above — those 
unhealthful  and  dangerous  processes  of  industry  which  lead 
to  physical  disaster. 

*  The  beginnings  of  such  an  investigation  into  the  trade  history  as 
well  as  the  home  life  of  clinic  patients  is  related  in  the  last  report  of  the  Social 
Service  Department  of  the  Massachusetts  General  Hospital  (Jan.  1,  1911- 
Jan.  1,  19i2).  Eighty  working  girls  who  had  applied  for  medical  relief 
during  eight  months,  were  studied. 


120 


V 

ECONOMIC  ASPECT  OF   REGULATION:    FATIGUE 
AND  OUTPUT 

IN  the  previous  chapters  we  have  found  in  the  laws  of 
fatigue  a  scientific  basis  for  legislation,  and  an  explanation 
of  the  effects  of  overwork  on  health.  We  may  proceed 
now  to  seek  in  the  same  physiological  laws  an  explanation  of 
the  effects  of  overwork  on  output  and  production.  To  under- 
stand the  economic  as  well  as  the  physical  effects  of  regula- 
tion, we  must  turn  back  to  those  physiological  truths  on  which 
both  alike  are  based. 

We  have  sought  to  bridge  the  gap  between  laboratory 
and  factory,  and  to  show  how  work,  whether  it  be  the  leg 
jerk  of  the  frog  in  scientific  experiments,  or  the  contractions 
of  our  human  muscles  in  industrial  processes,  results  in 
chemical  reactions  within  the  workers'  tissues.  Now  we 
must  turn  from  the  person  of  the  worker  to  his  accomplish- 
ment, from  study  of  the  performer  to  a  scrutiny  of  his  per- 
formance. 

Just  as  the  methods  of  the  laboratory  have  yielded  sug- 
gestive analogies  in  estimating  the  subjective  fatigue  of  the 
worker,  so  they  help  to  estimate  the  objective  value  of  work 
accomplished.  The  diagrams,  or  curves  of  work,  recorded 
upon  the  sooty  drum  at  the  laboratory,  represent  not  exactly 
but  symbolically  the  fluctuations  of  what  is  known  in  industry 
as  output,  or  production.  They  explain  why  long  and  late 
hours  of  labor  must  physiologically  result  in  lessened  output. 

This  is  the  more  important  because  regulation  of  the 
length  of  working  hours  has  been  so  bitterly  contested  by 
those  who  feared  that  any  lessening  of  the  hours  of  labor 
meant  a  corresponding  economic  loss.     From  the  first  dawn 

121 


FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 

of  protective  legislation  in  England  over  a  century  ago  to  the 
present  day,  the  rallying  cry  for  the  most  diverse-minded 
opponents  of  legislation  has  been  the  threatened  ruin  of  in- 
dustry and  manufactures.  Solemn  or  hysterical,  an  honest 
conviction,  hypocritical,  pseudo-scientific,  this  cry  has  been 
more  or  less  successfully  invoked  in  every  country,  at  every 
attempted  advance,  bringing  with  it  all  the  rancors  and  bit- 
ternesses through  which  the  cause  of  legislation  has  been 
dragged.  Yet  the  unconscious  consensus  of  testimony  from 
various  states  and  countries  on  the  economic  benefits  of 
the  short  day,  recorded  in  official  and  unofficial  documents, 
is  in  its  turn  as  impressive  as  we  found  the  unanimity  of 
evidence  on  the  physical  effects  of  the  long  day. 

For  the  most  part,  however,  all  this  body  of  information 
is  ignored  and  allowed  to  fade  into  the  limbo  of  forgotten 
things,  in  our  practical  efforts  at  legislation.  We  must  keep 
reiterating  that  the  unsolved  questions  and  difficulties  are  of 
fundamentally  the  same  general  character  today  as  in  the 
past.  Practically  the  world  over,  the  state  of  the  sweated 
trades  in  1912  is  "closely  parallel  to  that  of  the  Lancashire 
cotton  mills  in  1802."  To  come  nearer  home,  factory  legis- 
lation in  Pennsylvania,  New  York,  and  other  American  states 
has  not  yet  reached  the  stage  of  British  textile  legislation  of 
more  than  sixty  years  ago.  And  most  significant  of  all,  it  is 
still  the  cry  that  industry  will  be  ruined  by  protecting  the 
workers,  which  most  hampers  our  advance. 

It  is  the  cotton  lobby  which  throws  its  great  influence 
against  the  workers  in  the  cotton  states,  the  glass  lobby  in 
the  glass  states,  the  laundrymen's  association  wherever  legis- 
lation for  laundry  workers  is  proposed,  the  retail  dealers'  as- 
sociation against  any  relief  for  shop  girls.  Individual  em- 
ployers, it  goes  without  saying,  are  humane  and  enlightened, 
but  their  official  organizations  and  representatives  have  won 
a  sinister  distinction  in  opposing  labor  legislation.  Such 
associations  of  employers  as  those  named  above,  are  found 
officially  in  the  field  at  every  session  of  the  state  legislatures. 
It  was,  for  instance,  the  Illinois  Manufacturers'  Association 

122 


ECONOMIC   ASPECT  OF    REGULATION 

which  officially  combatted  any  restriction  whatsoever  of 
women's  hours  in  Illinois,  and,  failing  to  defeat  the  passage 
of  the  ten-hour  law  in  1909,  bent  all  their  energies  to  have 
the  law  annulled  by  the  courts.  It  was  the  laundrymen's 
associations  which  played  the  same  part  in  Oregon  in  1907, 
and  even  carried  a  case  against  the  Oregon  ten-hour  law  to 
the  United  States  Supreme  Court.  It  is  the  Retail  Dry  Goods 
Merchants  Association  of  New  York  City  which  by  varied 
means  has  succeeded  in  stifling  all  limitation  of  hours  for  adult 
women  employed  in  department  stores.  It  was  the  official 
Manufacturers'  Association  of  Colorado  which  issued  a 
statement  to  the  legislature  in  1911,  pointing  out  the  dangers 
of  the  proposed  eight-hour  law,  and  denying  its  need  by  re- 
counting the  contributions  of  Colorado  manufacturers  to 
various  charities.  The  universal  argument  which  has  so  often 
crowned  their  official  efforts  with  success  is  the  abject  money- 
makers' plea,  the  fear  of  loss — "Save  us  lest  we  perish." 

As  the  authors  of  the  standard  history  of  factory  legis- 
lation have  said,  writing  with  what  Mr.  Sidney  Webb  calls 
"commendable  restraint,"  as  "historical  students":* 

"  In  the  beginning,  the  proposal  to  restrict  children  to  a 
working  day  about  30  per  cent  longer  than  strong  men  now 
think  good  for  themselves,  was  greeted  almost  hysterically, 
and  the  ruin  of  trade  and  commercial  collapse  of  the  country 
were  freely  prophesied  as  the  necessary  result.  Inquiry  after 
inquiry,  commission  after  commission,  have  demonstrated 
the  groundlessness  of  these  rather  unmanly  terrors,  yet  the 
Factory  Code  is  still  the  barest  minimum  and  scarcely  ever  is 
there  a  discussion  in  Parliament  on  the  subject  that  does  not 
reveal  that  the  masses  of  information  and  material  that  exist 
for  the  full  economic  justification  of  further  measures  are 
practically  unknown  to  all  but  a  select  few  of  our  legislators." 

1.  GENERAL  EXPERIENCE  IN  ENGLAND 

As  far  as  our  immediate  subject  is  concerned, — the  re- 
lation between  fatigue  and  output, — the  testimony  of  history 

*  Hutchins,  B.  L.,  and  Harrison,  A.:  History  of  Factory  Legislation, 
D   253      London    P   S.  King  and  Son,  1903. 

123 


FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 

is  continuous  and  impressive.  In  England,  for  instance, 
whose  industrial  experience  is  longest  and  most  fully  re- 
corded, the  cry  that  legislation  would  ruin  the  country  united 
men  of  the  most  scattered  beliefs  and  parties  to  oppose  the 
Ten  Hours  Movement.  The  long  file  of  Parliamentary  De- 
bates from  1832  onward  gives  vivid  glimpses  of  the  conflict 
that  raged,  while  industrialism  was  bursting  into  life,  after 
the  long  European  wars.  The  Napoleonic  bogie  had  been 
laid.  The  ports  of  Europe  were  open  again  to  British  com- 
merce. Watt's  steam  engine,  patented  in  1769,  had  ad- 
vanced into  general  use.  The  day  of  industrialism  had  come. 
Terrible  as  is  some  of  the  testimony  in  the  Debates,  showing 
the  ugly  domination  of  men's  humaner  instincts  by  greed, 
and  the  almost  intolerable  slowness  with  which  nineteenth 
century  empiricism  treated  each  separate  abuse  as  a  single 
issue,  unrelated  to  any  general  principles  of  protection,  yet 
these  debates  are  seldom  remote  or  academic.  They  are 
vivid  cross-sections  of  British  history,  pulsing  with  life. 

We  see  the  Earl  of  Shaftesbury,  then  Lord  Ashley,  stand- 
ard-bearer of  the  cause,  in  the  great  debate  of  1844  stung 
from  the  lofty  tone  habitual  to  him  in  combatting  oppression. 
Once  too  often  his  opponents  had  flung  the  foolish  taunt  that 
he  was  attacking  commercial  interests  merely  as  the  repre- 
sentative of  a  different  social  class,  a  taunt  not  unknown  to 
reformers  today.  "Most  solemnly  do  I  deny  the  charge," 
began  Lord  Ashley,  and  breaking  into  anger: 

"  If  you  think  me  wicked  enough,  do  you  think  me  fool 
enough  for  such  a  hateful  policy?  Can  any  man  in  his  senses 
now  hesitate  to  believe  that  the  permanent  prosperity  of  the 
manufacturing  body  ...  is  essential,  not  only  to  the 
welfare,  but  absolutely  to  the  existence  of  the  British  Em- 
pire?"* 

We  see  Bright  and  Hume  and  Cobden,  leaders  of  the 
Manchester  School,  opposing  what  they  called  the  "inter- 
ference" of  the  government  (a  still  familiar  cry!)  as  certain 
to  bring  ruin  upon  manufacture.     These  men  were  fighting, 

*  Hansard's  Parliamentary  Debates,  3rd  Series,  Mar.  15,  1844. 
124 


ECONOMIC  ASPECT  OF  REGULATION 

we  must  remember,  the  battles  of  free  trade.  The  struggles 
for  the  Factory  Acts  and  for  free  trade  were  practically 
synchronous.  The  Corn  Laws  were  repealed  only  a  year 
before  the  final  passage  of  the  Ten  Hours  Bill  (1847),  and 
the  political  economists  denounced  in  one  breath  govern- 
ment regulation  of  working  hours  and  government  monopoly 
of  trade,  on  philosophic  grounds  of  laissei  faire. 

"The  people  ask  for  freedom  in  their  industry,"  cries 
John  Bright  in  1844,*  "for  the  removal  of  shackles  on  their 
trade;  you  deny  it  to  them  and  then  forbid  them  to  labor  as 
if  working  less  would  give  them  more  food  whilst  your  monop- 
oly laws  make  food  scarce  and  dear.  Give  them  liberty  to 
work,  give  them  the  market  of  the  world  for  their  products." 

Yet,  on  the  whole,  this  opposition  to  the  ten-hour 
movement  did  not  center  on  abstract  ideas  of  freedom  or 
philosophy.  It  was  much  more  practical  and  modern. 
Men  did  not  vote  on  any  party  lines — Whigs,  Tories,  and 
Radicals  were  all  intermingled. f  As  has  been  well  said,  the 
issue  resolved  itself  into  what  we  may  term  the  optimistic 
argument,  asserting  that  the  alleged  overwork  was  grossly 
exaggerated  (again,  how  familiar  a  defense!)  and  the  com- 
mercial argument  which  pleaded  that  the  manufacturing  in- 
terests would  be  bankrupted  by  the  proposed  restriction  to 
ten  hours. t 

This  was  indeed  long  held  to  be  the  vantage  ground  of  the 
opponents  of  restriction, — the  dire  consequences  which  must 
follow  the  curtailment  of  the  last  two  hours  of  the  twelve- 
hour  day. 

*  Hansard's  Parliamentary  Debates,  3rd  Series.     March  15,  1844. 

t  A  wellknown  passage  in  Greville's  Memoirs  describes  the  confusion: 
"  I  never  remember  so  much  excitement  as  has  been  caused  by  Ashley's 
Ten  Hours  Bill,  nor  a  more  curious  political  state  of  things,  such  intermin- 
gling of  parties,  such  a  confusion  of  opposition.  .  .  So  much  zeal,  asperity, 
and  animosity,  so  many  reproaches  hurled  backwards  and  forwards.  .  . 
John  Russell,  voting  for  '10  hours'  after  all  he  professed  last  year,  has  filled 
the  world  with  amazement.  .  .  The  opposition  was  divided,  Palmerston 
and  Lord  John  one  way,  Baring  and  Labouchere  the  other.  It  has  been 
a  very  queer  affair."  Memoirs,  Vol.  II,  pp.  236-237.  Longmans,  Green 
and  Co.,  London,  1885. 

X  Hutchins  and  Harrison,  op.  cit.,  p.  88.     Second  Edition.     1911. 
125 


FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 

No  one  issue  in  labor  legislation  has  been  more  befogged 
by  prejudice  and  passion  than  this  relative  productivity  of 
late  working  hours.  The  question  arose  at  the  very  outset 
of  the  industrial  era  in  1837,  when  the  economist  Senior  put 
forth  his  long-lived  economic  fallacy  that  profit  depends  on 
the  output  of  the  last  hours  of  work,  and  that,  consequently, 
profits  would  be  destroyed  if  the  eleventh  or  even  the  twelfth 
hour  of  work  were  curtailed.* 

This  superstition  has  died  hard.  No  contention  did 
more  to  retard  the  reduction  of  the  twelve-hour  day  in  Eng- 
land. It  seemed  plausible  enough  to  men,  in  the  first  flush  of 
invention  and  industrial  expansion,  who  looked  on  human 
labor  as  a  mere  adjunct  to  the  machine.  For  obviously,  with 
machines  every  additional  hour  of  operation  means  addi- 
tional profit.  The  fixed  charges  of  installation  and  operation 
— rent,  taxes,  and  the  like — are  not  increased  proportionally 
by  added  hours  of  operation;  hence  the  last  hours  were  sup- 
posed to  represent  clear  profit  after  expenses  had  been  met 
by  the  earlier  hours  of  work.  It  was  passionately  asserted 
that  the  commercial  supremacy  of  England  hung  on  the  last 
one  or  two  hours  of  work,  which  gave  the  profits. t 

Senior's  extraordinary  argument  was  introduced  verba- 
tim in  Parliament  by  Mr.  Milner  Gibson  in  1844,  as  "sound 
and  indisputable."  If  the  manufacturer's  profits  were  de- 
stroyed by  cutting  off  the  last  two  hours  of  work,  he  said, 
the  laborer  was  in  effect  deprived  of  earning  his  means  of 
subsistence.     Articles  and  arguments  for  and  against  Senior 

*  Senior,  Nassau:    Letters  on  the  Factory  Act.     London,  1837. 

t  "The  following  analysis  will  show  that  in  a  mill  so  worked  (twelve 
hours  a  day  and  nine  on  Saturday,  according  to  the  Act  of  1833)  the 
whole  profit  is  derived  from  the  last  hour.  I  will  suppose  a  manufacturer 
to  invest  £100,000— £80,000  in  his  mill  and  machinery  and  £20,000  in  raw 
material  and  wages.  The  annual  return  of  that  mill,  supposing  the  capital 
to  be  turned  once  a  year,  and  gross  profits  to  be  15  per  cent,  [ought  to  be 
goods  worth  £115,000,  produced  by  the  constant  conversion  and  reconver- 
sion of  the  £20,000  circulating  capital  from  money  into  goods  and  from  goods 
into  money  in  periods  of  rather  more  than  two  months.  Of  this  £115,000 
each  of  the  twenty-three  half-hours  of  work  produced  5/115ths  of  l/23rd. 
Of  these  23/23rds  (constituting  the  whole  £115,000),  20,  that  is  to  say, 
£100,000  out  of  the  £115,000,  simply  replace  the  capital;  l/23rd  (or 
£5,000)  out  of  the  £115,000  makes  up  for  the  deterioration  of  the  mill  and 

126 


ECONOMIC    ASPECT   OF    REGULATION 

raged  in  the  daily  and  weekly  press  as  well  as  in  Parliament. 
Even  ten  years  later,  just  before  the  ten  hours  bill  was  to 
pass  in  1847,  we  find  Joseph  Hume  making  an  impassioned 
appeal  still  based  on  Senior  against  interference  with  "fixed 
capital."  He  concurred  in  the  clear  and  satisfactory  argu- 
ments of  one  whom  "he  was  proud  to  call  his  friend,"  that 

"ten  hours  paid  only  the  expenses  of  the  'plant'  and  the 
wages  of  labor,  and  that  if  work  stopped  at  ten  hours,  there 
would  be  no  profit  on  the  capital  invested.  .  .  .  The 
surplus,  then,  whether  it  was  one,  one  and  a  half  or  two  hours 
beyond  ten  hours,  was  the  only  time  from  which  a  remunera- 
tive return  for  capital  could  be  made,  without  which  it  could 
not  be  expected  that  men  would  carry  on  business,"* 

But  the  irresistible  logic  of  events  was  already  beginning 
to  overcome  these  specious  arguments.  Senior's  theory  was 
not,  in  the  long  run,  borne  out  by  practice.  The  human  ele- 
ment, ignored  in  the  theory,  asserted  itself  practically,  and 
the  "spoiled  work"  which  had  to  be  thrown  away,  or  done 
over  again  the  next  morning,  increased  rapidly  during  the 
late  exhausting  hours  of  the  twelve-hour  day.  As  early  as 
1843  an  inquiry  made  for  the  second  Children's  Employment 
Commission  by  Mr.  J.  L.  Kennedy  as  to  the  cloth  print  works 
in  Lancashire,  Cheshire,  and  Derbyshire,  showed  how  the 
system  of  long  hours  resulted  in  deteriorated  output.  One 
firm,  for  instance,  tried  to  run  their  mill  fifteen  hours  per  day 
and  found  that  after  the  first  month  output  began  to  fall 
off  in  both  quantity  and  quality.  By  the  fourth  month  of 
the  trial,  the  spoiled  work  had  doubled,  and  production  had 

the  machinery.  The  remaining  2/23rds,  the  last  two  of  the  twenty-three 
half-hours  of  every  day,  produce  the  net  profits  of  10  per  cent.  If  therefore 
(prices  remaining  the  same)  the  factory  could  be  i<ept  at  work  thirteen  hours 
instead  of  eleven  and  one-half,  by  an  addition  of  about  £2,600  to  the  cir- 
culating capital,  the  net  profit  would  be  more  than  doubled.  On  the  other 
hand,  if  the  hours  of  working  were  reduced  by  one  hour  per  day  (prices 
remaining  the  same)  net  profits  would  be  destroyed;  if  they  were  reduced 
by  an  hour  and  a  half,  even  gross  profit  would  be  destroyed.  The  circulat- 
ing capital  would  be  replaced,  but  there  would  be  no  fund  to  compensate 
the  progressive  deterioration  of  the  fixed  capital."  Senior,  op.  cit.  Quoted 
in  Hutchins  and  Harrison,  p.  88. 

*  Hansard's  Parliamentary  Debates,  3rd  Series,  Feb.  10,  1847. 
127 


FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 

fallen  from  100  per  cent  to  90  per  cent.  This  they  attributed 
to  the  gradual  exhaustion  of  the  workers. 

"The  amount  of  spoiled  work  increased  to  such  an 
alarming  degree  that  the  parties  referred  to  felt  themselves 
compelled  to  shorten  the  hours  of  labor  to  avoid  loss."* 

Upon  reducing  the  hours  of  labor,  the  proportion  of 
spoiled  work  promptly  fell  and  output  rose  again.  This  was 
indeed  Lord  Shaftesbury's  great  argument,  and  the  argument 
of  Robert  Owen  and  others  of  practical  experience:  not 
only  that  production  deteriorated  in  amount  and  quality 
during  the  last  two  exhausting  hours  of  the  twelve-hour  day, 
but  that  the  workers'  total  efficiency,  their  physical  and  moral 
powers,  all  were  gradually  impaired.  The  shorter  day,  on 
the  contrary,  released  them  before  exhaustion  arrived,  and 
in  the  long  run  tended  to  preserve  working  capacity  at  a 
higher  level. 

Between  1844  and  1860  more  and  more  evidence  of  this 
kind  was  accumulating.  By  1861,  the  president  of  the 
economic  section  of  the  British  Association  for  the  Advance- 
ment of  Science  could  write  of  the  general  agreement  through- 
out the  country  that 

"if  there  has  been  one  change  which  more  than  another  has 
.  .  .  placed  the  manufacturing  enterprise  of  the  country 
on  a  safe  basis  and  has  conferred  upon  us  resources  against 
the  effects  of  foreign  competition  which  can  scarcely  be  over- 
valued, it  is  precisely  the  changes  which  have  been  brought 
about  by  the  .  .  .  efforts  to  establish  in  manufacturing 
occupations  a  sound  system  of  legal  interference  with  the 
hours  of  labour. "t 

During  this  period  many  wellknown  opponents  of  legis- 
lation who  had  foretold  the  destruction  of  British  industry, 
such  as  Cobden,  Mr.  Roebuck,  the  Home  Secretary  Sir 
James  Graham,  and  others,  became  converted.     Mr.  Roe- 

*  British  Sessional  Papers.  1843,  Vol.  XIII,  p.  72. 
t  Reprinted  in  Journal  of  the  Statistical  Society,  Vol.  XXIV,  1861, 
p.  463. 

128 


ECONOMIC    ASPECT   OF    REGULATION 

buck's  recantation  is  so  vivacious  and  made  so  great  an  im- 
pression at  the  time  that  it  ought  in  part  to  be  quoted: 

"Very  early  in  my  Padiamentary  career,  Lord  Ashley, 
now  the  Earl  of  Shaftesbury,  introduced  a  bill  of  this  descrip- 
tion. I  being  an  ardent  political  economist,  as  1  am  now, 
opposed  the  measure  .  .  .  and  was  very  much  influenced 
in  my  opposition  by  what  the  gentlemen  of  Lancashire  said. 
They  declared  that  it  was  the  last  half  hour  of  the  work  per- 
formed by  their  operatives  which  made  all  their  profits,  and 
that  if  we  took  away  that  last  half  hour  we  should  ruin  the 
manufacturers  of  England.  1  listened  to  that  statement  and 
trembled  for  the  manufacturers  of  England,  but  Lord  Ashley 
persevered.  Parliament  passed  the  bill  which  he  brought  in. 
From  that  time  down  to  the  present,  the  factories  of  this 
country  have  been  under  state  control,  and  1  appeal  to  this 
house  whether  the  manufacturers  of  England  have  suffered 
by  this  legislation.  But  the  Honourable  member  for  Man- 
chester (John  Bright)  still,  1  find,  makes  the  same  objection. 
He  gets  up  and  prophesies  all  sorts  of  evil  if  we  interfere  now; 
but  he  has  kept  out  of  view  the  evils  for  the  prevention  of 
which  we  are  now  about  to  interfere  .  .  .  Having  pre- 
vented this  misery  in  the  one  case,  let  us  interfere  to  prevent 
it  in  the  other."* 

The  chief  agencies  by  which  these  real  results  of  the  acts 
were  becoming  known,  were  the  reports  of  the  factory  in- 
spectors. It  was  a  step  of  quite  unappreciated  importance 
when  in  1833  the  first  inspectors  were  appointed  to  enforce 
the  act.  Supervision  by  the  local  justices,  as  first  enacted, 
had  failed.  The  appointment  of  inspectors  by  the  central 
government  for  the  express  purpose  of  enforcement  has  been 
well  called  "the  turning  point  of  legislation,"  a  step  "whose 
importance  cannot  be  exaggerated."!  It  was  one  of  the 
first  instances  of  creating  a  special  department  of  the  central 
government  to  administer  a  particular  act.  The  inspectors 
were  also  to  keep  the  government  informed  of  the  condition 
of  the  factory  population,  the  degree  to  which  the  laws  were 

*  Hansard's  Parliamentary  Debates,  3rd  Series,  Mar.  21,  1860. 
t  Webb,  Sidney,  and  Cox,  H.:  The  Eight  Hours  Day,  p.  199.     London, 
W.  Scott,  1891. 

9  129 


FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 

meeting  the  existing  evils,  and  the  like  questions.  Their 
reports  were  sent  in  to  one  of  the  secretaries  of  state  twice  a 
year  or  oftener.  Hence  it  came  about  that  there  gradually 
became  available  a  body  of  unprejudiced  information, — an 
"invaluable  continuous  record  of  industrial  conditions  by 
trained  observers,  free  from  local  bias  and  partiality,  whose 
business  it  was  to  renew  their  visits  at  stated  periods  and 
note  what  changes  took  place  within  their  view."* 

This  has  been  one  of  the  most  important  services  of 
the  inspection  force  in  England  and  on  the  continent.  How- 
ever short  they  may  have  fallen  in  the  actual  enforcement 
of  the  laws,  owing  to  the  great  odds  against  them, — the 
hostility  of  employers  and  parents,  the  inadequacy  of  the 
laws  and  their  own  entirely  inadequate  numbers, — they  have, 
at  any  rate,  bequeathed  to  us  an  invaluable  record  of  the 
actual  effects  of  legislation.  Those  who  favored  the  exten- 
sion of  the  Act  of  1847  and  the  inclusion  of  other  trades,  could 
at  least  point  to  the  written  accounts  of  what  had  been  ac- 
complished in  one  regulated  industry.  As  other  trades  were 
gradually  included  by  subsequent  legislation, — print  works, 
bleacheries,  lace  factories,  hosiery,  hardware,  and  so  forth, — 
the  factory  inspectors  continued  to  show  how  manufacture 
in  the  long  run  profited  instead  of  suffering  by  regulation. 

Human  nature  is  such,  however,  that  immediate  profits 
tend  to  outweigh  future  benefits,  which  can  be  proved  only  in 
the  long  run.  Immediate  profits  make  a  much  more  popular 
appeal,  and  have  distorted  the  issue,  time  and  again,  in  suc- 
cessive campaigns  for  the  short  day,  in  each  industrial  coun- 
try in  turn.  It  was  no  peculiarity  of  the  English  that  they  so 
often  preferred  the  immediate  returns  of  the  long  working 
day,  so  that  after  more  than  one  hundred  years  of  legislation 
the  Factory  Code  must  still  be  called  a  minimum  of  pro- 
tection. The  same  higgling  and  the  same  specious  argu- 
ments have  been  effective  in  Germany,  in  France,  in  Belgium, 
in  the  United  States,  and  wherever  legislation  on  working 
hours  has  been  undertaken.     Only  repeated  demonstrations 

*  Hutchins  and  Harrison,  op.  cit.,  p.  72. 

>30 


ECONOMIC  ASPECT  OF  REGULATION 

and  restatements  of  the  true  economic  effects  of  short  hours, 
by  enlightened  employers,  factory  inspectors,  economists, 
and  laboring  men  have  at  all  offset  the  illusory  immediate 
profits  of  the  long  day.  England  has  the  longest  and  most 
fully  recorded  industrial  history;  but  the  same  sequence  could 
be  traced  in  the  other  industrial  countries. 

2.     GENERAL  EXPERIENCE  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES 

In  the  United  States  the  seeming  paradox  of  larger  out- 
put in  shorter  hours  was  clearly  stated  by  the  now  classic 
report  of  the  Massachusetts  Bureau  of  Statistics  of  Labor  in 
1881.  Agitation  for  some  sort  of  legislative  protection  for 
working  children  began  as  early  as  1825  in  Massachusetts.* 
The  first  law  applying  to  adult  women  was  not  passed  until 
1874.  Six  years  after  the  Massachusetts  ten-hour  law 
went  into  effect,  a  full  investigation  under  Carroll  D.  Wright 
showed  that  the  cost  of  production  had  not  been  increased, 
nor  had  wages  been  lowered  under  the  Massachusetts  ten- 
hour  day,  as  compared  with  the  system  of  eleven  hours  and 
longer  in  neighboring  states.  The  worker's  increased  effi- 
ciency more  than  balanced  the  curtailment  of  working  time. 
Massachusetts  with  ten  hours  produced  "as  much  per  man, 
or  per  loom  or  per  spindle,  equal  grades  being  considered,  as 
other  states  with  eleven  and  more  hours,  and  also  .  .  . 
wages  here  rule  as  high,  if  not  higher  than  in  the  states  where 
the  mills  run  longer  time."t 

Even  before  the  passage  of  the  Massachusetts  act  in 
1874,  experiments  in  single  mills  proved  the  same  result.  In 
1867  the  Atlantic  Mills  at  Lawrence  cut  down  their  working 
day  from  ten  and  three-quarters  to  ten  hours.  The  wages 
were  kept  the  same.  Cost  of  production  increased  2^  per 
cent,  and  the  output  at  first  was  reduced  4  to  5  per  cent; 
yet  the  treasurer  of  the  company  testified  before  the  Massa- 

*  Labor  Laws  and  Their  Enforcement,  with  special  reference  to 
Massachusetts,  p.  4.  Edited  by  Susan  M.  Kingsbury.  New  York,  Long- 
mans, Green  and  Co.,  1911. 

t  Report  of  Massachusetts  Bureau  of  Statistics  of  Labor,  1881,  p.  457. 
131 


FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 

chusetts  Committee  on  Labor  in  1873  that  after  three  and  a 
half  years  with  no  change  in  machinery  or  in  wages,  the  out- 
put of  ten  hours  was  "fully  equal"  to  the  output  of  the  pre- 
vious ten  and  three-quarters  hours;  the  immediate  improve- 
ment in  the  workers  was  such  that  the  firm  considered  them 
the  "best  that  have  been  in  the  mill  for  fifteen  years,"  and 
work  was  more  continuous  and  less  interrupted  throughout 
the  year  than  ever  before.* 

The  favorable  operation  of  the  Massachusetts  law,  re- 
ported in  1881,  led  to  the  passage  between  1885  and  1887, 
of  similar  laws  in  other  New  England  states, — Rhode  Island, 
Maine,  New  Hampshire,  and  Connecticut, — and  greatly  in- 
fluenced the  trend  of  legislation  in  other  states. 

During  more  than  a  generation  which  has  elapsed  since 
Massachusetts  took  the  first  step,  the  well  worn  argument 
that  industry  would  be  ruined  or  must  leave  the  state,  has 
accompanied  each  advance  in  American  legislation,  yet  in 
only  one  case  has  any  law  limiting  women's  hours  of  work 
been  repealed. f  Almost  every  amendment  has  been  by  way 
of  strengthening  the  laws  and  further  reducing  the  workday. t 

This  fact  is  in  itself  presumptive  proof  of  the  economic 
success  of  these  statutes.  No  one  can  suppose  that  indus- 
trial communities,  all  in  comparatively  close  touch  with  one 
another  and  able  to  observe  how  the  laws  were  affecting 
"business"  in  neighboring  states,  would  deliberately  con- 
tinue, during  more  than  thirty-six  years,  to  undo  their  own 
commercial  welfare  by  legislative  enactments.  Common 
sense  refutes  the  thought.  Rather  have  the  opponents  of 
legislation  tried  year  by  year  to  minimize  and  ridicule  the 
economic  benefits  of  the  shortened  day;  but  in  spite  of  their 
misrepresentation  and  ridicule,  the  truth  has  prevailed. 

*  Argument  of  Hon.  Wm.  Gray  on  Petitions  for  Ten-Hour  Law  before 
the  Massachusetts  Committee  on  Labor,  Feb.  13,  1873. 

t  The  New  Jersey  law  of  1892  providing  a  ten-hour  day  and  fifty-five- 
hour  week  for  women,  was  held  repealed  by  the  repealing  act  of  1904,  which 
reorganized  the  New  Jersey  Department  of  Labor. 

J  The  only  retrograde  action  has  been  the  decisions  of  certain  courts 
concerning  the  constitutionality  of  laws  limiting  hours  of  labor.  These  are 
discussed  in  Chap.  VI II. 

132 


ECONOMIC    ASPECT   OF    REGULATION 

In  a  general  way  it  has  gradually  become  recognized 
that  shorter  hours  improve  health,  and  that  improved  health 
and  efficiency  under  the  short-hour  system  is  the  basis  of 
higher  output.*  The  greater  zest  and  generally  increased 
capacity  of  the  short-hour  worker  have  been  contrasted  with 
the  physical  and  moral  exhaustion  of  the  long-hour  worker. 

Can  we  now  learn  something  more  accurate  about  the 
effects  of  regulation  upon  industry  today?  Can  physiology 
interpret  for  us  the  relative  productivity  of  long  and  short 
days,  as  it  has  clarified  the  new  strain  of  manufacture  and 
commerce?  What  has  physiology  to  do  with  production, 
fatigue  with  output,  today,  since  the  examples  of  thirty  and 
forty  years  ago  are  now  valuable  chiefly  for  their  confirma- 
tion of  European  experience  and  the  influence  which  they 
have  had  upon  past  legislation? 


3.     AN  EXPERIMENTAL  STUDY  OF  OUTPUT 

Before  taking  up  the  question  of  output  in  industrial 
establishments,  we  may  gain  some  insight  from  a  suggestive 
little  investigation  made  by  an  Italian  physiologist.  Professor 
G.  Pieraccini  of  Florence. f  This  study  of  output  is  not  at  all 
conclusive,  since  it  deals  with  a  very  small  number  of  experi- 
ments and  workers.  It  is  valuable  chiefly  in  pointing  out 
one  method  for  future  investigations.  No  generalizations 
can  be  based  upon  a  few  observations,  and  the  ever  variable 
human  factor  in  production  makes  it  a  vastly  subtle  and 
complex  question.  Indeed,  in  a  certain  factory,  the  mere 
knowledge  that  they  were  being  examined  caused  marked 
variations  in  the  output  of  working  girls  under  observation. 
But  Dr.  Pieraccini's  study  is  at  least  an  interesting  attempt 
to  find  the  relative  productivity  of  the  various  hours  of  the 
day  in  selected  employments,  and  it  may  well  precede  our 

*  See  Part  1 1  of  this  volume,  pp.  339-384. 

t  Proceedings  of  the  First  International  Congress  on  Industrial  Dis- 
eases, Milan,  1906.  Pieraccini,  G.  (Arcispedale  di  S.  M.  Nuova,  Firenze): 
La  Curva  della  Produzione  Utile  Esterna  Raccolta  Negli  Operai  Manuali 
ed  Intellettuali  Sul  Campo  del  Lavoro. 

133 


FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 

discussion  of  such  statistics  as  exist,  on  the  productivity  of 
the  long  and  the  short  day  in  industry. 

Professor  Pieraccini  did  not  use  any  laboratory  appara- 
tus to  measure  the  output  of  his  workers,  but  compared  its 
actual  amount  and  quality  at  different  hours  of  the  day.  He 
studied  the  output  of  five  different  kinds  of  manual  workers, 
namely,  a  copyist,  six  diggers,  four  stone-cutters,  two  bullet 
makers,  two  nail  makers,  and  ten  compositors.  The  small 
number  of  experiments  reported  is  somewhat  compensated 
by  the  similarity  of  their  results  and  their  general  harmony 
with  the  knowledge  derived  from  laboratory  experiments. 

For  just  as  we  have  seen  diagrammatically  in  the  labora- 
tory, the  sequence  of  treppe,  maximum  effort,  fatigue,  and 
exhaustion,  so  in  these  experiments  we  see  how  working 
capacity  increases  during  the  second  and  third  hours  of  work, 
falling  as  fatigue  gains  towards  the  noon  hour,  rising  again 
slightly  after  food  and  rest  at  noon,  to  decline  more  rapidly 
to  a  minimum  in  the  afternoon. 

The  most  interesting  figures  are  those  given  for  the 
compositors  or  typesetters.  The  amount  of  their  output  was 
determined  by  the  number  of  lines  set  per  hour,  while  the 
number  of  typographical  errors  served  to  determine  the 
quality  of  their  work.  The  first  experiment  was  made  on 
six  members  of  the  Typographical  Co-operative  Society  of 
Florence,  experienced  men  working  at  piece-rates,  for  seven 
hours  in  the  day.     Their  output  was  as  follows:* 

OUTPUT    OF     SIX     TYPESETTERS     WORKING     AT      PIECE-RATES 
SEVEN    HOURS   A   DAY 


Hours 

8-9 

9-10 

10-11 

11-12 

12-2 

2-3 

3-4 

4-5 

Total 

121 

151 

130 

125 

Rest 

and 
Lunch 

142 

124 

96 

Average 

20.2 

25.3 

21.6 

20.8 

(( 

23.6 

20.8 

16 

*  Pieraccini,  op.  cit.,  p.  122. 
134 


ECONOMIC    ASPECT    OF    REGULATION 

Plotted,  the  curve  is  as  follows:* 


160 


ISO 


KO 


130 


100 


90 


/ 

\ 

/ 

\ 

/ 

\ 

^> 

\, 

/ 

\ 

.-' 

\ 

/ 

\ 

,," 

" 

N. 

/ 

^ 

\ 

* 

" 

\ 

^v 

~<.  « 

^ 

^^- 

■^ 

^i-t- 

-- 



" 

\^ 

V 

/^ 

V 

\, 

\ 

1^-*. 

\ 

\ 

jf 

Similar  is  the  showing  made  by  four  typesetters  of  the 
Niccolai  Printing  House  at  Florence.  The  errors  made  in- 
crease as  work  (i.  e.,  the  number  of  lines  set)  decreases. 
That  is,  the  quality  of  the  work  falls  just  as  the  amount  falls, 
with  the  increase  of  fatigue. 


OUTPUT  OF  FOUR  TYPESETTERS,  SHOWING  INCREASE  OF  ERRORS 
WITH  INCREASE  OF  FATIGUE 


Hours 

8-9 

9-10 

10-11 

11-12 

12-2 

2-3 

3-4 

4-5 

No.  of  lines  set 

Total 

84 

104 

92 

86 

Rest 

99 

82 

64 

Average 

21 

26 

23 

21.5 

" 

24.7 

20.5 

16 

Errors 

Total 

17 

10 

18.28    28 

<< 

5.5 

22.6 

30 

Average 

4.25 

2.5 

4.57 

7 

i< 

1.37 

5.45 

7.5 

Plotted,  the  curve  is  as  shown  in  the  following  chart. 

*ln  this  chart  and  the  following  one  A  =  total  output;  B=average 
output. 

135 


FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 


inn 

\ 

/ 

\ 

\ 

,- 

-^ 

\ 

sn 

/ 

\ 

^, 

" 

\ 

/ 

\ 

^if 

^ 

\ 

Rn 

... 

X   X 

\ 

\ 

\ 

rn 

\ 

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\ 

An 

^ 

50 

40 

^(\ 

70 

/^ 

"  ^* 

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y 

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^^. 

*- 

— 

-■ 

^"^ 

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10 

0 

The  other  experiments  upon  the  copyists,  diggers,  stone 
cutters,  nail  and  bullet  makers,  showed  the  same  general 
results.  The  practice,  or  "limbering  up,"  gained  during  the 
first  hour  of  work  makes  the  second  and  sometimes  the 
third  hour  also  the  period  of  maximum  production.  In 
all  cases  the  lowest  output  of  the  morning  is  reached  during 
the  hour  before  the  noon  rest.  Output  rises  again  markedly 
in  the  first  hour  of  work  after  the  noon  rest,  but  it  declines 
much  more  rapidly  in  the  afternoon  than  in  the  morning. 
In  no  case  does  the  afternoon  output  equal  the  morning's 
output  in  amount. 

Inconclusive  as  these  few  figures  are,  and  unsatisfactory 
in  that  they  report  total  and  average  amounts  of  work  instead 
of  separate,  individual  amounts  per  worker,  they  at  any  rate 
point  clearly  to  the  close  connection  between  the  worker's 

136 


ECONOMIC    ASPECT   OF    REGULATION 

physical  condition  and  his  output.  The  rise  in  production  in 
the  first  hour  after  noon  marks  the  recuperative  effect  of  food 
and  rest.  The  lower  productivity  of  the  afternoon  is  the 
perfectly  normal  result  of  the  worker's  physiological  fatigue, 
stemmed  for  a  while  by  the  noon  break,  but  growing  naturally 
through  the  functioning  of  his  tissues,  until  quitting  time  and 
the  night's  rest  restore  the  metabolic  losses. 

Through  all  the  myriad  variations  of  men's  individual 
endowments,  these  general  tendencies  persist.  Working 
capacity,  like  all  human  capacities,  eludes  perfectly  fixed 
rules  and  measurements.  Man's  way  of  working  is  almost  as 
individual  as  his  thumb-print,  fast  or  slow,  steady  or  variable, 
tiring  easily  or  tiring  late,  with  as  varying  reserves  of  quite 
unmeasured  strength.  But  all  alike  are  subject  to  the  physio- 
logic laws,  and  this  likeness  which  links  all  humankind  is 
more  fundamental,  more  important  in  our  industrial  inquiry, 
than  all  the  peculiarities  which  differentiate. 

So  much  for  the  underlying  principles,  and  the  very 
palpable  connection  between  fatigue  and  output.  As  in 
sports  the  player's  game  shows  whether  he  is  "in  form,"  "in 
trim,"  "in  training,"  so  in  a  sense,  production  is  no  more  than 
a  measure  of  the  worker's  fatigue  or  equilibrium.  Work  is 
still  conditioned  on  the  worker,  in  spite  of  all  the  marvels  of 
modern  machinery,  planning,  equipment,  and  the  rest.  And 
as  a  corollary,  work,  output,  production,  must  rise  or  fall 
with  the  worker's  physical  fitness  for  his  task.  This  is  what 
we  have  seen  repeatedly  illustrated  in  the  laboratory,  and 
also  in  Professor  Pieraccini's  study  analyzed  above — a  labo- 
ratory experiment  transferred,  as  it  were,  into  the  factory. 

Can  we  not  find  further  confirmation  in  the  actual 
operation  of  modern  industries?  Can  we  point  to  the  rela- 
tive productivity  of  the  long  and  the  short  day  in  actual 
practice — their  cash  values  in  dollars  and  cents? 

Unfortunately,  exact  data  on  this  subject  are  meager  and 
difficult  to  get.  In  this  country  few  reliable  and  definite 
statistics  are  to  be  found.     Many  experiments  in  shortening 

137 


FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 

the  hours  of  labor  in  various  trades  have  yielded  impressive 
results  but  have  not  been  made  public. 

The  increasing  use  of  the  stop-watch — a  symbol  of  the 
new  planning  in  industry,  its  infinitesimal  accounting  and 
record-keeping — is  bound  to  show  more  and  more  new  facts 
about  men's  diurnal  efficiencies  and  the  resultant  individual 
and  total  records  of  output.  But  these  studies,  charts,  and 
observations  are  so  comparatively  new  (dating  from  approxi- 
mately the  last  decade),  and  the  nature  of  the  results  is  held 
so  confidential,  that  they  have  for  the  most  part  been  kept 
private.  Manufacturers  are  apt  to  hesitate  or  entirely  re- 
fuse to  publish  the  new  saving  in  time,  labor  cost,  and  ma- 
terials which  result  from  new  methods  of  organization. 
They  regard  them  as  business  secrets,  and  fear  competitors. 
Let  us,  then,  first  undertake  to  examine  three  wellknown 
and  important  foreign  studies  of  efficiency  which  deal  with 
conditions  sufficiently  like  our  own  to  be  convincing  and 
which  throw  considerable  light  on  the  economic  effects  of 
reducing  the  length  of  the  workday. 

4.     THE    EXPERIENCE   OF   THE    SALFORD    IRON    WORKS    AT 
MANCHESTER,  ENGLAND 

One  of  the  most  conclusive  and  influential  of  these  ex- 
periments in  shortening  the  day's  work  was  made  by  the 
firm  of  Mather  and  Piatt  in  1893  at  the  Salford  Iron  Works 
at  Manchester,  England.  This  experiment  is  of  particular 
interest  because  it  was  carried  on  during  an  entire  year  for 
the  express  purpose  of  measuring  the  effects  of  reduced  hours, 
"to  prove  how  far  the  widespread  desire  for  shorter  hours 
might  be  met  without  danger  to  the  mechanical  trades."* 

The  full  complement  of  men  at  the  Salford  Iron  Works 
during  the  trial  year  (March  1,  1893,  to  Feb.  28,  1894)  was 
1,200.  The  character  of  the  work  turned  out  was  similar  to 
that  of  the  preceding  six  years;   that  is,  general  engineering 

*  Mather,  Wm.,  M.  P.:  The  Forty-eight  Hours  Week:  A  Year's 
Experiment  and  its  Results  at  the  Salford  Iron  Works,  Manchester.  Man- 
chester,  1894. 

138 


ECONOMIC    ASPECT   OF    REGULATION 

work.*  Since  the  firm  was  subject  to  keen  competition  in 
home  and  foreign  markets,  a  detailed  study  was  made  of  the 
effect  of  shorter  hours  on  the  cost  of  labor.  In  order  to  carry 
out  the  trial  with  scientific  precision  and  care,  extremely  ac- 
curate comparisons  were  made  by  expert  accountants.  Mr. 
Mather  vouches  for  the  absolutely  correct  and  trustworthy 
nature  of  the  results,  while  he  states  that  their  confidential 
nature  makes  it  impossible  to  publish  all  of  the  figures  which 
were  later  given  to  the  government  officials.  Previous  to 
the  trial  year,  the  week's  work  was  first  fifty-four  and  then 
fifty-three  hours,  and  the  figures  taken  as  standards  with 
which  to  compare  results  are  the  averages,  per  year,  of  the 
previous  six  years. 

The  most  noteworthy  statement  in  the  report  is  that 
under  the  forty-eight-hour  week  production  increased. f 
Selling  prices,  moreover,  were  lower  than  in  the  previous 
years,  so  that  during  the  trial  year  the  cost  of  wages  in  pro- 
portion to  "turnover"  rose  0.4  per  cent.  Had  selling  prices 
remained  the  same,  the  cost  of  wages  would  have  shown  a 
decided  decrease,  instead  of  an  increase  of  0.4  per  cent. 

This  debit  against  the  trial  year,  however,  Mr.  Mather 
considers  balanced  by  a  saving  of  0.4  per  cent  secured  as  a 
direct  consequence  of  the  shorter  hours.  The  greater  econ- 
omy in  consumables  (gas,  electric  lighting,  wear  and  tear,  etc.) 
was  closely  figured  and  set  against  the  increased  fixed  charges 
due  to  interest  on  plant  and  machinery,  rent,  taxes,  etc.  The 
balance  of  these  two  accounts  was  clearly  in  favor  of  the  trial 
year.  "  By  a  remarkable  coincidence,"  it  showed  a  saving  of 
0.4  per  cent  on  these  items,  which  exactly  counter-balances 
the  debit  of  0.4  per  cent  from  the  increased  cost  of  wages. 

Another  item  of  interest  to  our  special  inquiry  concerns 

*  This  "comprised  steam  engines,  pumping  machinery,  boiler  work, 
etc.;  all  machinery  used  in  those  textile  trades  (other  than  spinning  and 
weaving)  for  the  bleaching,  printing  and  finishing  of  cotton,  linen,  silk,  and 
other  fabrics;  electrical  machinery  of  every  variety  for  lighting,  trans- 
mission of  power,  electric  traction,  electro-depositing,  electro-chemical 
processes,  etc."     Op.  cit.,  p.  5. 

t  Op.  cit.,  pp.  17  and  20.     (Figures  not  given.) 

139 


FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 

the  effect  of  shorter  hours  on  piece-rates.  It  was  assumed, 
at  the  outset,  that  the  men  on  piece-work  were  doing  their 
best,  and  that  their  earnings  must  be  lessened  by  any  reduc- 
tion in  hours.  But  though  the  piece-workers  lost  slightly 
during  the  year,  their  falling  off  diminished  as  the  \ear  ad- 
vanced, showing  a  steady  adaptation  to  the  altered  condi- 
tions of  work.  In  order  to  judge  the  effects  of  the  new  sys- 
tem on  piece-work,  the  year  was  divided  into  three  approxi- 
mately equal  periods.  In  the  first  period,  the  surplus  earned 
by  piece-workers  over  day-work  rates  was  1.76  per  cent  less 
than  the  standard  piece-work  wages;  in  the  second  period  it 
was  1.58  per  cent  less,  and  in  the  third  it  was  0.78  per  cent 
less  than  the  standard.  This  steadily  diminishing  loss  made 
it  reasonable  to  expect  that  at  the  end  of  the  year  the  differ- 
ence would  entirely  disappear,  and  that  under  reduced  hours 
the  piece-workers  would  earn  exactly  as  much,  hence  produce 
as  much,  as  in  the  longer  day's  work.  Moreover,  as  the 
total  output  of  the  works  was  greater  during  the  trial  year 
than  previously,  the  slight  diminution  in  the  piece-worker's 
production  was  more  than  compensated  by  increased  produc- 
tion on  the  part  of  the  day-workers. 

In  the  light  of  our  previous  studies  of  fatigue  and  the 
strain  upon  men's  energies  in  overwork,  it  is  extremely  signifi- 
cant that  the  management  of  the  Salford  Iron  Works  at- 
tributed the  maintenance  of  full  production  during  the  trial 
year  "solely  to  the  unimpaired  and  cheerful  energy  on  the 
part  of  every  man  and  boy  throughout  the  day."* 

"We  seem,"  says  the  report  (and  the  statement  is  the 
more  impressive  because  this  investigation  was  not  primarily 
concerned  with  the  workers  at  all,  but  with  the  effect  of 
shorter  hours  upon  the  output  of  "one  of  the  great  staple 
trades  of  the  country"  centering  in  Lancashire  and  York- 
shire), "we  seem  to  have  been  working  in  harmony  with  a 
natural  law,  instead  of  against  it.  .  .  .  The  most  econom- 
ical production  is  attained  by  employing  men  only  so  long 
as  they  are  at  their  best.  When  this  stage  is  passed,  there 
is  no  true  economy  in  their  continued  work."! 

*  Italics  added.  t  Op-  cit.,  pp.  25  and  26. 

140 


ECONOMIC    ASPECT   OF    REGULATION 

As  one  result  of  the  "  unimpaired  and  cheerful  energy"  of 
the  workers  under  the  forty-eight-hour  system,  the  improve- 
ment in  respect  to  "time  lost  without  leave"  is  an  important 
item.  Under  the  fifty-three-hour  system,  the  proportion  of 
such  "time  lost"  to  the  total  time  worked  averaged  2.46  per 
cent,  while  under  the  new  arrangement  it  was  only  0.46  per 
cent.  This  loss  of  time  meant,  of  course,  a  serious  inroad 
upon  production,  and  the  greater  "promptitude,"  "steadi- 
ness," "life  and  spirit  about  commencing  work,"  reported 
by  the  foremen  of  various  departments*  aided  in  bringing 
about  the  success  of  the  forty-eight-hour  week. 

Eleven  years  after  this  experiment  was  tried,  the  United 
States  Bureau  of  Labor  inquired  of  Messrs.  Mather  and  Piatt 
whether  their  works  were  still  upon  an  eight-hour  basis,  and 
received  a  reply  dated  May  24,  1904,  stating  that  "our  ex- 
perience since  the  first  year  in  which  it  (the  eight-hour  system) 
was  tried  has  fully  borne  out  the  conclusions  then  arrived  at, 
and  we  are  fully  satisfied  that  as  regards  the  comparison  be- 
tween eight  and  nine  hours  per  day,  the  balance  of  advantage 
is  in  favor  of  the  shorter  period. "f 

An  interesting  sequel  to  the  success  of  the  forty-eight- 
hour  week  at  the  Salford  Iron  Works  was  Mr.  Mather's  de- 
termination, as  a  matter  of  public  duty,  to  lay  the  results 
before  the  heads  of  various  government  departments.  The 
then  secretary  of  state  for  war,  Mr.  Campbell-Bannerman, 
the  first  lord  of  the  admiralty.  Earl  Spencer,  and  the  post- 
master general,  Mr.  Arnold  Morley,  invited  Mr.  Mather  to 
explain  the  workings  of  the  forty-eight-hour  week  to  the 
chiefs  of  construction  from  the  Woolwich  Arsenal  Works,  and 
to  the  officials  of  the  dockyards  and  the  post  office. 

Subsequently,  in  1894,  the  hours  of  labor  of  about  43,000 
work  people  in  government  factories  and  workshops  were 
reduced  to  an  average  of  forty-eight  hours  in  the  week.|     Of 

*  Op.  cit.,  p.  79. 

t  Bulletin  of  the  New  York  State  Department  of  Labor.  No.  25, 
June,  1905,  p.  240. 

X  British  Board  of  Trade  Labor  Gazette,  July,  1905. 
141 


FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 

these,  18,641  workers  in  war  office  establishments  had  their 
working  time  shortened  by  five  and  three-quarters  hours  per 
week.* 

In  1905,  eleven  years  later,  the  war  office  stated  that 
when  the  forty-eight-hour  week  was  first  introduced,  the 
results  of  experiments  tried  out  in  private  factories  had  led 
them  to  expect  a  saving  in  time  through  the  greater  prompt- 
ness of  men  in  stopping  and  re-starting  work,  a  greater  regu- 
larity of  attendance,  and  an  improvement  in  the  men's 
physical  condition,  with  a  consequent  increase  in  working 
capacity.     The  communication  states  that 

"these  anticipations  have  been  justified  and  it  is  clear  that 
no  extra  cost  has  been  incurred  by  the  public  on  account  of 
the  reduction  of  hours,  nor  has  the  output  of  work  been 
diminished.  On  the  other  hand,  the  majority  of  the  work- 
men being  on  piece-work,  the  average  weekly  earnings  per 
man  have  not  been  sensibly  altered,  although  piece-work 
prices  have  not  been  increased.  The  day-workers  received 
an  increased  hourly  rate  of  pay  to  make  their  earnings  per 
week  of  forty-eight  hours  equal  to  those  per  week  of  fifty-four 
hours.  It  was  not  found  necessary  to  increase  the  number 
of  day-workers." 

So  much  for  the  economic  results  of  the  shorter  week  in 
the  army  establishments.  The  testimony  from  the  admiralty 
is  less  specific  and  definite.  In  1894,  24,263  workers  in  the 
royal  dockyards,  the  royal  naval  ordnance  department,  and 
H.  M.  victualling  yard  had  their  hours  reduced  to  forty-eight 
in  the  week.  In  1905  the  admiralty  stated  that  the  cost  of 
production  at  the  dockyards  where  most  of  the  workers 
affected  by  the  change  were  employed,  compared  favorably 
with  the  cost  previous  to  the  introduction  of  the  forty-eight- 
hour  week.  But  they  were  unable  to  state  to  what  extent 
the  cost  had  been  affected  by  the  reduction  in  hours,  on  ac- 
count of  improvements  in  machinery,  changes  in  the  methods 

*  This  includes  the  Ordnance  Factories,  Ordnance  Store  Dept., 
Inspection  Dept.,  Small  Arms  Inspection  Dept.,  and  Royal  Army  Clothing 
Dept. 

142 


ECONOMIC   ASPECT   OF    REGULATION 

of  conveying  stores  within  the  dockyards,  increases  of  pay  in 
certain  trades,  and  the  Hke. 

Such,  then,  was  the  result  of  one  specific  inquiry,  frag- 
mentary as  it  is,  at  the  Salford  Works,  into  the  economic 
effects  of  the  shorter  workday.  The  later  fruits  of  the  experi- 
ment in  shortening  the  hours  of  many  thousand  workers  in 
government  employ,  give  it  an  importance  beyond  its  own 
narrower  limits. 

The  Salford  Iron  Works  and  the  government  depart- 
ments which  followed  its  lead,  settled  on  the  forty-eight-hour 
week  as  the  most  profitable  working  period.  Here  we  should 
state  that,  in  this  study  of  fatigue,  we  do  not  hold  a  brief  for 
the  eight-hour  day,  or  for  a  day  of  any  specified  number  of 
hours.  Physiologically  considered,  even  the  eight-hour  day 
is  too  long  a  period  of  work  in  some  dangerous  occupa- 
tions. Sir  Thomas  Oliver,  the  leading  expert  on  industrial 
poisoning,  has  recently  reported  that  "a  change  from  six-  to 
eight-hour  shifts  of  employment  was  in  a  Scotch  factory 
found  to  be  the  only  explanation  of  an  outbreak  of  plumbism 
in  a  works  which  had  hitherto  been  free."*  Moreover,  the 
eight-hour  day,  involving  with  the  noon  hour  and  time  taken 
in  traveling  to  and  from  home  usually  ten  or  eleven  hours' 
employment,  does  not  leave  too  great  a  margin  of  leisure  for 
any  persons  who  are  to  be  citizens  of  value  to  the  state. 

But  for  the  moment  we  are  not  concerned  with  the  claims 
of  this  or  that  specified  number  of  working  hours.  We  aim 
merely  to  answer  the  questions  we  have  set  ourselves  in  this 
chapter:  What  has  physiology  to  do  with  production,  fatigue 
with  output?  Can  we  learn  the  relative  productivity  of  the 
long  and  the  short  day  in  operation — their  market  value? 
The  Salford  Iron  Works  and  the  reduced  hours  of  43,000 
workers  in  English  government  employment  have  given  us 
our  first  reply.  For  the  next,  we  turn  to  a  careful  Belgian 
investigation  of  efficiency. 

*  Bulletin  of  the  United  States  Bureau  of  Labor,  No.  95,  July,  1911. 
Oliver,  Sir  Thomas,  M.D.,  F.  R.  C.  P.:  Industrial  Lead  Poisoning  in 
Europe,  p.  9. 

143 


FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 


5.    THE  EXPERIENCE  OF  THE  ENGIS  CHEMICAL  WORKS  NEAR 
LIEGE,  BELGIUM 

In  the  year  1888  a  joint  stock  company  was  formed  in 
the  Province  of  Liege,  by  a  group  of  Belgian  manufacturers  of 
chemical  products.  The  name  of  the  company  was  La 
Societe  Anonyme  des  Produits  Chimiques  d'Engis.  Its 
objects  were  two-fold:  the  reduction  of  zinc  blend,  and  the 
simultaneous  transformation  of  the  liberated  gases  into  sul- 
phuric acid.  The  company's  plant  was  located  near  a  zinc 
works,  and  was  designed  to  replace  the  latter's  open  air 
furnaces  for  the  reduction  of  the  blend,  by  a  new  system  of 
muffled  ovens.  The  old  means  of  reduction  (known  as 
Freiburg  ovens)  allowed  large  volumes  of  anhydride  of  sulphur 
to  escape,  a  gas  peculiarly  destructive  to  vegetation.  The 
Engis  Company  installed  the  new  system  to  save  the  pay- 
ment of  heavy  damages  to  the  vicinity  and  the  waste  of  the 
gases  liberated  in  the  roasting  process. 

Originally,  under  the  old  system,  work  was  carried  on  in 
twenty-four-hour  shifts.  Workmen  were  required  to  remain 
at  their  ovens  from  6  a.  m.  to  6  a.  m.  on  alternating  days. 
Work  was  intermittent,  and  during  the  twenty-four  hours  on 
duty  each  man  had  time-off  at  irregular  intervals,  amounting 
to  about  seven  hours  in  the  twenty-four.  This  organization 
of  work  was  naturally  found  intolerable,  leading  to  inefficienc)', 
exhaustion,  and  drunkenness  among  the  workmen. 

When  the  new  stock  company  was  formed,  a  twelve- 
hour  workday  was  introduced.  Each  week  the  day  shifts 
and  night  shifts  alternated,  thus  providing  a  twenty-four- 
hour  workday  and  a  twenty-four-hour  day  of  rest  on  alternate 
Sundays.  But  this  schedule  of  work  was  also  found  un- 
satisfactory and  inhumane,  and  after  four  years  a  funda- 
mental change  was  determined  upon.  L.  G.  Fromont,  the 
engineer  who  founded  the  Engis  works  and  was  its  manager 
for  more  than  a  dozen  years,  has  described  in  detail  the  fmal 
reorganization  of  his  labor  force  from  a  two-shift  to  a  three- 


144 


ECONOMIC    ASPECT   OF    REGULATION 

shift  basis.*  This  meant  the  reduction  of  the  workday  from 
ten  to  eight  hours — a  change  owing  not  to  the  demands  of 
labor,  but  to  M.  Fromont's  observation  of  the  exhaustion 
(surmenage)  of  his  workmen. 

The  special  interest  of  this  account  lies  in  its  statistical 
exactness  and  detail.  Manifestly,  in  a  dangerous  occupation 
involving  poisonous  gases  and  extremest  heat,  the  danger  to 
health  arises  chiefly  from  the  character  of  the  work.  But  the 
statistics  of  output,  wages,  sick  benefits,  etc.,  under  the 
twelve-hour  and  the  eight-hour  day  show  convincingly  the 
part  played  by  the  reduction  of  hours. 

The  constant  deficits  of  the  sick  benefit  fund  had  become 
alarming.  A  mutual  association  had  been  formed  at  the 
first  foundation  of  the  company.  It  not  only  paid  for  medi- 
cal attendance  and  drugs,  but  also  a  part  of  the  salaries  of 
sick  workmen  during  non-employment.  Accidents  were  not 
charged  to  this  fund,  as  the  company  had  from  the  beginning 
itself  insured  its  workers  against  such  hazards.  But  alarm- 
ing as  were  the  deficits  of  the  sick  benefit  fund,  the  manage- 
ment was  even  more  concerned  by  the  manifest  and  daily  in- 
creasing physical  debility  of  their  workers.  (Nous  fumes 
bien  plus  alarme  encore  de  devoir  constater,  chaque  jour,  la 
decroissance  manifeste  de  la  resistance  et  de  la  vaillance  de 
nos  hommes.)  During  the  heat  of  the  summer  a  permanent 
relief  shift  was  found  necessary,  to  assist  or  relieve  men  over- 
come by  exhaustion  at  the  furnaces  and  incapable  of  con- 
tinuing their  work. 

The  chemical  works  had  had  considerable  difficulty  in 
recruiting  their  force.  They  needed  the  strongest  and  most 
robust  of  workmen.  But  in  that  part  of  Belgium  where  the 
Engis  plant  was  situated,  the  traditional  strong  man's  trade 
was  brickmaking.  It  was  a  trade  bred  in  the  bone  of  the 
countryside.  During  the  inclemency  of  winter,  the  brick- 
makers  would  betake  themselves  to  other  work  in  mines  or 

*  Fromont,  L.  G.:  Une  Experience  Industrielle  de  Reduction  de  la 
Journee  de  Travail.  Instituts  Solvay.  Brussels  et  Leipzig,  Misch  et 
Thron,  1906, 

lo  145 


FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 

mills;  but  with  the  first  harbingers  of  spring  (des  que  les 
premieres  hirondelles  ont  faits  leur  apparition)  they  were  seized 
with  a  longing  for  their  own  trade  (la  nostalgie  du  metier) 
and  despite  promises  and  good  intentions,  they  were  off  to 
work  in  the  sun  and  open  air. 

Notwithstanding  their  superior  strength,  therefore,  the 
Engis  Company  was  compelled  to  accept  workers  of  inferior 
physique  but  of  steadier  working  habits  than  the  brickmakers. 
When  after  four  years  their  labor  force  showed  unmistakable 
signs  of  failing  and  breakage,  the  company  considered  the 
feasibility  of  importing  a  sturdier  race  of  foreign  workmen. 
But  unlike  less  scrupulous  employers,  the  suggestion  did 
not  meet  with  favor  amongst  them.  It  seemed  to  the  man- 
agement unjust  to  their  well-intentioned  laborers,  as  well  as 
an  unintelligent  effort  to  dodge  the  difficulty.  The  true  solu- 
tion, M.  Fromont  felt,  lay  in  imitating  the  almost  incredible 
feats  of  science  (des  vertigineux  progres  de  la  science)  which 
have  transformed  into  servants  of  the  human  will  the  most 
formidable  energies  and  forces  of  destruction.  The  com- 
pany's difficulties  could  not  be  solved  by  systematically 
locking  out  the  natural  labor  supply  (le  rejet  systematique 
de  la  main-d'oeuvre  qui  s'offrait  a  nous),  but  by  attempting 
to  modify  the  hardships  of  the  trade  (en  essayant  d'assouplir 
aux  circonstances,  les  exigences  de  notre  industrie). 

It  was  for  this  purpose  that  the  three-shift  system  was 
introduced  and  the  workday  curtailed  to  eight  hours. 

Professor  Ernest  Mahaim  of  the  University  of  Liege,  a 
prominent  Belgian  economist,  summarizes  the  results  of  the 
changes  as  follows: 

"  In  the  eight-hour  day,  representing  seven  and  one-half 
hours  of  actual  work,  the  same  workman  at  the  same  ovens, 
with  the  same  implements  and  raw  material,  produced  as 
much  as  previously  in  twelve  hours,  representing  ten  hours 
of  actual  work." 

How,  now,  were  these  results  ascertained?  They  are 
described  by  M.  Fromont  with  scientific  accuracy  and  con- 

146 


ECONOMIC    ASPECT   OF    REGULATION 

ciseness  in  a  series  of  extremely  interesting  charts  (see 
pages  150-154),  first  communicated  in  1897  to  the  Belgian 
Chemical  Society  and  the  Association  of  Engineers  of  the 
Liege  School.*  The  probable  effect  of  the  reduction  of  hours 
upon  output,  wages,  etc.,  was  first  plotted  in  advance,  and 
then  compared  with  the  actual  effects  of  the  shortened  day. 

The  interest  of  the  experiment,  says  M.  Fromont,  was 
all  the  greater  because  the  results  of  the  change  could  be 
graphically  and  exactly  demonstrated.  The  output  was  of  a 
kind  which  could  be  measured  by  weight,  and  the  same  unit 
of  measurement  showed  the  variation  of  wages,  since  they 
were  fixed  by  the  amount  of  metal  extracted. 

Under  the  old  regime  the  furnaces  were  in  operation 
twenty  hours  in  the  twenty-four  and  empty  four  hours,  while 
under  the  new  they  were  in  operation  twenty-two  and  one- 
half  hours  and  empty  only  one  and  one-half  hours.  A  gain  of 
two  and  one-half  hours'  time  in  twenty-four,  or  10.5  per  cent, 
was  thus  achieved.  In  seven  and  one-half  hours'  work  the 
increase  was  therefore 

— ^100      =0.7875  hours  =  48  minutes. 

What  increase  of  output  per  man  might  now  be  expected 
as  a  result  of  this  gain  in  working  time? 

While  the  work  was  carried  on  in  two  shifts,  the  men 
were  on  the  premises  twelve  hours,  representing  ten  hours  of 
actual  work.  Their  daily  output  per  man  was  1000  kilos  of 
roasted  ore  or  100  kilos  per  hour.  Under  the  new  system, 
the  men  were  on  the  premises  eight  hours,  representing 
seven  and  one-half  hours  of  actual  work.  At  the  old  rate  of 
production  their  output  would  thus  be  750  kilos  per  day. 
But  as  we  have  seen,  the  three-shift  system  had  resulted  in  a 
gain  of  two  and  one-half  hours'  work  in  the  twenty-four  hours. 
Hence  it  was  estimated  that  during  the  twenty-four  hours  a 
proportional  increase  of  output  might  be  expected  of 

2.5  X  100  =  250  kilos. 

*  Bulletin  de  i'Association  des  Ingenieurs  sortis  de  I'Ecole  de  Liege. 
Stance  du  11  juillet,  1897. 

147 


FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 

Dividing  this  total  gain  among  the  shifts  gives 

250 

—  —  =  83  kilos  increase  for  each  shift. 

Hence  each  shift's  work  was  estimated  at  750  +  83  =  833 
kilos  per  seven  and  one-half  hour  day  of  actual  work,  or 

,  =111.1  kilos  per  hour. 

In  another  way  a  similar  estimate  was  reached.  The 
new  three-shift  system  had  resulted  in  increasing  the  shaking- 
down  of  the  furnaces  by  20  per  cent.  In  reducing  the  ore, 
any  increase  of  shaking-down  favors  oxidation  and  the  reduc- 
tion of  the  blend.  Hence  a  proportional  increase  of  20  per 
cent  in  the  extraction  of  metal  was  to  be  expected. 

The  amount  of  extracted  metal  had  under  the  old  system 
been  2,000  kilos  per  day.     The  daily  increase  was  therefore 

estimated  at 

2.000X20     .fv^,  •, 
—Too" =400  kilos. 

Again  dividing  this  estimated  daily  increase  among  the 
three  shifts  gives 

—J   =  134  kilos  per  shift. 

Hence  each  shift  might  be  expected  to  produce  750  +  134  =  884 
kilos  of  roasted  mineral.  Taking  the  round  number  of  890 
kilos,  this  would  give 

-y-g  =118  kilos  per  hour. 

From  these  and  similar  calculations  it  was  determined 
that  830  kilos  could  easily  be  reached  as  the  daily  minimum, 
and  that  890  kilos  might  reasonably  be  expected. 

Such  were  the  expectations  and  estimates  of  the  manage- 
ment. The  inauguration  of  the  new  system  was  difficult. 
It  was  bitterly  opposed  by  the  workers.  They  saw  in  the 
reduction  of  hours  only  a  certain  curtailment  of  production 
and  lowered  wages.  The  estimated  increases  were  received 
with  scornful  (le  plus  meprisant)  scepticism.  At  their  pre- 
vious wage  of  .40  francs  per  hour,  the  men  were  convinced 

148 


ECONOMIC    ASPECT    OF    REGULATION 

that  they  would  receive  only  7.5X40  =  3  francs  per  day. 
The  most  energetic  measures,  together  with  incessant  and 
patient  persuasions,  were  needed  to  overcome  the  workers' 
misconceptions  and  ill-will  (eurent  fmalement  raison  du 
mauvais  vouloir  des  ouvriers).  They  finally  yielded  to  the 
evidence  of  fact.  For  little  by  little,  under  the  new  system, 
the  daily  output  increased  and  the  management's  estimates 
were  not  only  realized,  but  surpassed.  In  less  than  six 
months  after  the  experiment  was  inaugurated,  the  workers 
had  equalled  in  seven  and  one-half  hours  the  previous  output 
of  ten  hours,  and  the  daily  wage  for  eight  hours'  work  equalled 
the  wage  previously  earned  in  ten  hours. 

Charts  1  and  1 1  (page  150)  show  the  estimated  and  actual 
results  of  the  shortened  workday.  The  dotted  lines  represent 
the  estimates,  the  solid  lines  the  actual  achievements.  Since 
the  output  of  seven  and  one-half  hours  equalled  the  output  of 
ten  hours,  or  1000  kilos,  instead  of  890  kilos  as  expected,  we 
obtain  in  Chart  I  the  curve  R  M,  instead  of  the  estimated 
drop  RN.  The  curve  of  earnings  R'M'  in  Chart  1 1  is  iden- 
tical, wages  being  paid  by  the  amount  of  ore  extracted,  or  at 
4  francs  per  thousand  kilos.  In  both  output  and  earnings  the 
increase  over  estimates  accomplished  in  the  eight-hour  day 
was  12.4  per  cent.* 

Under  the  old  system,  the  alternation  of  day  and  night 
shifts  required  a  double  workday  of  twenty  hours  by  each 
shift  on  alternate  Sundays.  The  output  of  this  double  day 
had  never  equalled  twice  the  output  of  the  ordinary  ten-hour 
day  or  2000  kilos,  but  always  fell  to  1600  kilos. 

Under  the  new  system,  the  long  Sunday  fell  to  the  lot  of 
each  shift  only  once  in  three  weeks  instead  of  every  fortnight, 
and  the  double  day  was  fourteen  and  three-quarters  hours 
instead  of  twenty.  It  was  computed  in  advance  that  the 
workers  would  accomplish  twice  their  daily  output  of  890 


*  Fromont,  op.  cit.,  p.  78. 

As  regards  output  IIOXJOO 

890 
As    regards    wages    ^XIQQ 
356 

149 


=  12.4  per  cent. 


FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 


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150 


ECONOMIC  ASPECT  OF  REGULATION 

kilos,  or  1780  kilos,  on  the  long  Sunday,  and  accordingly 
would  earn  7.12  francs.  As  a  matter  of  fact  they  increased 
their  output  on  Sunday  just  as  on  other  days,  reaching  2000 
kilos  and  earning  8  francs. 

Hence  in  Charts  III  and  IV  (page  152)  we  obtain  the 
curves  5  P  and  S'  P',  instead  of  the  estimated  curves  5  Q 
and  S'  Q'.  These  curves  show  an  increase  of  25  per  cent,  in 
both  output  and  earnings,  over  the  previous  results  of  the 
twelve-hour  day.* 

The  increase  of  output  and  wages  per  hour,  compared  to 
what  had  been  expected  in  advance,  is  even  more  striking. 
Instead  of  producing  118  kilos  per  hour,  the  men  accomplished 
133  kilos,  giving  the  curve  H  K  and  H'  and  K'  instead  of  H  L 
and  H'  U  in  the  next  two  charts.  (Charts  V  and  VI,  page 
153.)  These  effects  of  the  eight-hour  day  were  12.7  per  cent 
greater  than  had  been  estimated,  and  32>.2>Z  per  cent  greater 
than  the  output  of  the  twelve-hour  day.f 

Another  interesting  chart  shows  the  effect  of  the  short- 
ened workday  upon  the  mutual  sick  benefit  fund.  J  As  we 
have  seen,  accidents  were  not  charged  to  this  account;  the 
number  of  contributors  remained  about  the  same.  Hence 
the  progressive  increase  of  receipts  over  expenditures  seemed 
to  M.  Fromont  proof  of  the  beneficial  and  undeniable  (heur- 
euse  et  incontestable)  influence  of  the  eight-hour  day. 

The  abscissas  of  the  chart  represent  the  years  elapsed 
since  the  foundation  of  the  company.  The  ordinates  repre- 
sent the  annual  excess  of  receipts  over  expenditures.  The 
curve  npqroahcdejghiklm  shows  the  fluctuations  of  receipts 


Op.  cit.,  p.  78. 

As  regards  output  400  x  lOO 

1600 
As  regards  wages  160  x  100 
640 


25  per  cent. 


t  Op.  cit.,  p.  79. 

As  regards   production    33.33  X  100 

100 
As  regards  wages  133.33X108 

400 

JOp.  cit..  p.  82.     See  Chart  VII,  page  154. 


=  33.33  per  cent. 


FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 


SI 


\n^ 

^ 

^ 

/                     I 

^ 

/                         ' 

^           -J 

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1 

o 

> 

£       sz 

u 


>9 

^^ 

^ '^ 

y 

^--^ 

/ 

/ 

^ 

^ 

/ 
/ 

<*/ 

T     ~ 

o 

u 


152 


ECONOMIC    ASPECT   OF    REGULATION 


X 

^ 

-^v 
^y^/ 

y' 

y/ 

r-- 

-?--- 

/  1 

r     1 

o 

> 


u 


X 

—       ^'-' 

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153 


FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 

and  expenditures  during  a  series  of  years.  That  is,  the  por- 
tion of  the  curve  below  the  line  ox  shows  that  between  1889 
and  1892  expenditures  exceeded  receipts;  the  portion  of  the 
curve  above  ox  shows  that  subsequent  to  the  introduction  of 
the  eight-hour  day  in  1893  the  receipts  tended  to  exceed  ex- 
penditures progressively. 

The  pronounced  drop  in  this  line  in  the  years  1895, 1900, 


IS89  1690  IB9I     IB9Z  IS93  1894    IS9>  iiV>    IWl    1898    1899   1900  1901    1901  1905   1904  YEARS 

Chart  VII 


and  1902  (represented  by  the  peaks,  c,  h,  and  k)  is  ascribed  by 
M.  Fromont  to  the  epidemics  of  influenza  which  raged  during 
those  winters.  He  concludes  that  without  exaggeration 
(sans  pouvoir  etre  taxe  d'exageration)  the  improvement  in 
health  under  the  eight-hour  system  may  be  called  progressive, 
asjepresented  by  the  dotted  line  ohMeJgNlm. 

154 


ECONOMIC    ASPECT   OF    REGULATION 

In  addition  to  this  graphic  chart,  M.  Fromont  bears 
eloquent  testimony  to  the  new  spirit  of  sobriety  and  self- 
respect  which  accompanied  the  shortened  workday.  Pre- 
viously the  strong  stimulant  of  drink  was  found  a  daily 
necessity.  The  men's  wives  themselves  provided  it  in  the 
mornings  (les  malheureuses  inconscientes)  hoping  to  help 
their  husbands  to  "repair  themselves,"  in  the  picturesque 
language  of  the  countryside  ("se  refaire  des  forces,"  suivant 
I'expression  pittoresque  des  ouvriers).  With  the  shorter 
workday  the  clandestine  drinking  in  the  factory  was  aban- 
doned, and  even  outside  of  working  hours  drunkenness  al- 
most totally  ceased.  The  men  also  acquired  the  habit  of 
invariably  washing  and  changing  their  clothes  before  leaving 
the  factory — signs  of  a  new  personal  self-respect. 

Finally,  M.  Fromont  describes  in  detail  the  effect  of  the 
reduction  of  hours  upon  the  cost  of  production.  Without 
reproducing  his  detailed  statistics,*  it  suffices  to  state  here 
that  the  overhead  charges  per  ton  of  roasted  ore  fell  33.33 
per  cent.  The  total  cost  of  production  fell  20  per  cent.  Thus 
in  the  new  organization  of  work  technical  perfection  was  not 
sacrificed  nor  neglected.  The  amount  and  quality  of  the 
output  improved  progressively,  together  with  the  moral  and 
physical  improvement  of  the  labor  force. 


6.     THE    EXPERIENCE    OF    THE    ZEISS    OPTICAL    WORKS 
AT    JENA,    GERMANY 

We  have  purposely  left  to  the  last,  for  our  fullest  analy- 
sis, Ernst  Abbe's  classic  study  of  the  famous  Zeiss  Optical 
Works  at  Jena,  Germany.  This  is,  for  our  purposes,  the 
most  significant  and  valuable  study  of  efficiency  ever  pub- 
lished, because  Abbe,  himself  a  physicist,  university  pro- 
fessor, and  inventor  of  first  rank,  and  the  owner  of  a  world- 
famous  manufacturing  plant,  found  himself  driven  to  the 
conclusion  almost  naively  stated  by  Mr.  Mather  when  he 
wrote  about  the  shortened  workday:   "We  seem   to  have 

*  Op.  cit.,  pp.  87-96. 
155 


FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 

been  working  in  harmony  with  a  natural  law,  instead  of 
against  it." 

Abbe's  social  contributions  were  unique.  They  have 
received  scant  notice  in  this  country,  but  abroad  they  are 
famous.  Since  his  death  in  1905,  scarcely  a  serious  review  or 
scientific  journal  in  Germany  has  failed  to  publish  an  appre- 
ciation of  him  (als  Sozial  Politiker);  of  his  social  schemes  as 
well  as  his  inventions  in  applied  optics;  and  of  his  creation 
and  endowment  of  the  great  Carl  Zeiss  Foundation  at  Jena, 
a  model  industrial  organization. 

Here  we  must  confine  ourselves  to  Abbe's  remarkable 
study  of  industrial  efficiency,  set  forth  in  two  lectures  before 
the  Society  for  Political  Economy  of  Jena  in  1901.*  Abbe 
died  before  he  had  opportunity  to  complete  the  more  thorough 
(griindlich)  study  of  efficiency  which  he  had  planned.  He 
was  certain  that  no  thinking  person  (kein  Denkender)  could 
fail  to  be  convinced  by  the  relentless  logic  which  links  effi- 
ciency and  the  length  of  the  workday.  In  the  two  lectures 
which  he  has  left  on  the  subject  the  reader  is  constantly  im- 
pressed with  this  logical  treatment  of  the  argument.  It  is 
based  on  no  a  priori  judgments,  but  deduced  step  by  step,  by 
a  trained  scientist,  from  thirty  years'  observations  of  a  great 
industrial  plant. 

Abbe  was  born  in  1840,  the  son  of  a  hard  working  Saxon 
spinner.  At  Jena  and  Gottingen  he  managed  to  study  the 
sciences,  chiefly  mathematics  and  physics.  Later  he  be- 
came docent  at  Jena,  and  in  1870  was  appointed  full  pro- 
fessor. He  continued  to  lecture  on  physics  and  astronomy 
and  to  direct  the  astronomical  observatory  until  his  retire- 
ment in  1889. 

Twenty  years  or  more  before  he  retired  from  the  Uni- 
versity, Abbe  had  become  interested  in,  and  had  devoted  his 
best  efforts  to  problems  of  applied  optics  in  the  works  of 
Carl  Zeiss  at  Jena,  where  the  construction  of  microscopes, 

*  Gesammelte  Abhandlungen  von  Ernst  Abb^,  Bd.  Ill,  1906.  Die 
Volkswirtschaftliche  Bedeutung  der  Verkiirzung  des  Industriellen  Arbeits- 
tages,  2  Vortrage  gehalten  in  der  Staatswissenschaftiichen  Gesellschaft  zu 
Jena.  1901. 

156 


ECONOMIC    ASPECT   OF    REGULATION 

telescopes,  and  other  lenses  was  being  technically  perfected, 
in  1875  Abbe  entered  the  firm  of  C.  Zeiss,  and  after  the 
latter's  death  in  1888  conducted  the  business  alone  until 
1896,  when  he  handed  over  the  management  to  his  carefully 
constituted  Carl  Zeiss  Foundation,  remaining  one  of  the 
directors  until  ill  health  forced  him  to  retire  a  year  or  two 
before  his  death. 

These  bare  facts  of  Abbe's  career  indicate  how  he  was 
equipped  to  deal  with  the — to  him — astonishing  results  in 
the  eificiency  of  his  workmen,  when  the  workday  at  the  Zeiss 
Works  was  abruptly  changed  in  1900  from  nine  to  eight  hours, 
a  reduction  of  10  per  cent  at  one  stroke. 

When  Abbe  entered  the  Zeiss  firm  in  1870,  the  workday 
had  been  twelve  hours  long.  It  was  gradually  reduced,  reach- 
ing nine  hours  in  1891.  Nine  years  later  it  was  further 
shortened  to  eight  hours,  for  the  same  purpose  as  at  the 
Salford  Iron  Works  described  above;  that  is,  to  discover  the 
effect  on  output.  The  trial  at  the  Zeiss  Works  was  also 
limited  to  one  year. 

Abbe  was  familiar  with  the  British  experiments  in  re- 
ducing the  length  of  the  workday,  and  had  been  particularly 
impressed  by  the  experience  of  the  Woolwich  Arsenal  in 
changing  from  nine  to  eight  hours  without  loss  or  decrease 
in  output.  The  general  similarity  and  consensus  of  English 
experience  on  the  benefits  of  the  short  day  to  output,  organ- 
ization, and  invention  seemed  to  Abbe  presumptive  evidence 
of  its  truth.  But  he  realized  that  specific  statistical  proofs  of 
increased  efficiency  under  the  eight-hour  regime  were  still 
needed,  and  he  published  the  careful  records  and  statistics  of 
the  Zeiss  Works  precisely  to  corroborate  more  exactly  the 
general  principles  empirically  learned  in  British  mills  and 
factories. 

The  effects  of  the  change  from  nine  to  eight  hours  were 
measured  by  comparing  the  earnings  of  piece-workers  during 
the  year  before  and  the  year  after  the  change.  In  order  to 
make  the  comparison  as  accurate  as  possible  and  to  eliminate 
chance  variations,  great  care  was  taken  to  omit  all  workers 

157 


FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 

whose  output  might  have  been  affected  by  special  individual 
causes.  The  comparison  was  limited  to  workers  who  had 
been  in  the  firm's  employ  four  years,  and  who  were  over 
twenty-two  years  old.  All  workers  were  ruled  out  who  had 
lost  more  than  300  hours  during  the  year  on  account  of  sick- 
ness or  other  reasons.  About  20  others  were  not  counted 
because  their  health  seemed  below  par.  This  left  233  work- 
men whose  work  during  the  trial  year  could  fairly  be  com- 
pared with  the  year  before  and  could  be  expected  to  show  the 
effect  of  the  reduction  of  hours.  Thanks  to  the  careful 
system  of  accounting,  showing  for  years  back  the  daily  indi- 
vidual earnings  of  men  at  piece-  and  time-work,  the  follow- 
ing figures  were  available.* 


COMPARISON    OF    HOURLY    EARNINGS    OF    233    PIECE-WORKERS 
IN    THE    ZEISS    OPTICAL   WORKS. 

In  the  last  year  of  the  Nine-Hour  System  (April  1,  1899-Apri!  1, 
1900)  and  in  the  first  year  of  the  Eight-hour  System  (April  1, 
1900-April  1,  1901) 


Year 

Total  number  Piece- 
work Hours 

Earnings      Earnings  per 
(in  Marks)     Hr.  (in  Pf) 

Ratio  of 
Increase 

1899-1900 
1900-1901 

559,169 
Average  per  man  2400 

509,599 
Average  per  man  2187 

345,899 
366,484 

61.9 
71.9 

100:116.2 

Now  if  the  men,  in  eight  hours,  had  earned  exactly  the 
same  as  in  nine  hours,  piece  prices  remaining  the  same,  then 
hourly  earnings  would  have  had  to  increase  in  the  ratio  of 
8  :  9  or  100  :  112.5.  But  as  a  matter  of  fact,  the  hourly 
earnings  increased  in  the  ratio  of  100  :  116.2.  During  the 
trial  year,  therefore,  wages  were  more  than  equal  to  those  of 
the  previous  year.  There  was  an  increase,  as  shown  above, 
of  3  per  cent.  This  means  that  in  eight  hours  the  daily  out- 
*  Op.  cit.,  p.  246. 
158 


ECONOMIC    ASPECT   OF    REGULATION 

put  was  one-thirtieth  more  than  in  nine  hours.  In  other 
words,  during  the  trial  year  30  men  did  the  work  that  31  men 
had  done  previously.  Each  man  did  ten  days'  more  work 
during  the  year  of  shorter  hours. 

This  increase  in  efficiency  was  not  confmed  to  any  one 
class  of  workers,  nor  was  it  particularly  influenced  by  the 
ages  of  the  workers.  The  following  table  shows  the  ages  of 
the  233  workers  under  discussion,  and  how  nearly  uniform 
was  their  increase  in  efficiency  in  the  shorter  day. 

INCREASE  IN  EFFICIENCY  UNDER  THE  EIGHT-HOUR  DAY  OF  233 

PIECE-WORKERS  AT  THE  ZEISS  OPTICAL  WORKS. — 

CLASSIFIED    BY    AGES 

(Ages  were  reckoned  from  April  1,  1900.  Length  of  service  rec- 
koned according  to  years  spent  in  the  firm's  employ  after  the 
eighteenth  birthday) 


Ages 

No.  of 

iVork- 

men 

Average 
Ages 

Average 
Length 
Service 

AVERAG 

Rate  E 

PER  HOL 

9Hr. 
Day 

E   PlECE- 
ARNINGS 

R  IN  Pf. 

8Hr. 
Day 

Ratio  of 
Increase 

22-25  

25-30  

30-35  

35-40  

Over  40.... 

34 
69 
69 
40 
21 

23.5 
27.3 
32.2 
37.7 
45.3 

5.5 

7.9 

10.1 

12.7 

15.3 

55.3 
62.2 
65.1 
60.6 
63.3 

65.2 
72.6 
74.8 
70.2 
74.3 

100 
100 
100 
100 
100 

117.9 
116.7 
114.9 
115.8 
117.4 

Total .... 

233 

31.6* 

9.6t 

61.9 

71.9 

100  :  116.2 

Maximum  53,  minimum  22  years.  f  Maximum  ii,  minimum  4  years. 


A  second  classification  divides  the  233  workers  in  ques- 
tion according  to  their  special  kinds  of  work.  It  shows  that 
the  efficiency  of  all  increased  in  about  the  same  proportion, 
though  the  work  ranged  from  the  most  delicate  and  highly 
skilled  technical  processes  to  the  ordinary  operations  of  wood- 
turning,  polishing,  etc. 

159 


FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 

INCREASE  IN   EFFICIENCY  OF  THE  233  WORKERS. CLASSIFIED 

BY    OCCUPATION 


Occupation 

s 

o 

Si 

"a 

Earnings 

PER  Hour 

IN  Pf. 

Ra 
Inc 

tio  of 

9Hr. 
Day 

8Hr. 
Day 

rease 

Optical  Operations: 
1.  Lense-setters:  Fine  hand 
work 

21 
20 

59 
19 

22 
20 
23 

17 
5 
6 

15 
6 

31.1 
33.2 

26.1 
32.1 

31.7 
36.9 
35.2 

34.7 
27.2 
36.2 
35.2 
30.4 

12.7 
13.8 

7.5 
5.8 

8.2 
11.6 
11.1 

11.2 
6.8 
9.7 

10.5 
6.4 

72.8 
79.1 

60.4 

52.2 

65.5 
66.6 
57.6 

53.8 
56.1 
56.4 
52.3 

55.7 

84.9 
86.5 

70.5 
62.0 

76.7 
78.5 
68.0 

63.3 
66.9 
64.8 
62.9 
62.8 

100 
100 

100 
100 

100 
100 
100 

100 
100 
100 
100 
100 

1166 

2.  Microscope  grinders,  etc. 

3.  Other  hand  grinders  and 

centerers,        entirely 
hand  work 

109.4 
1167 

4.  Machine    grinders,    en- 

tirely machine  work  . 
Mechanical    and    Auxiliary 
H^ork: 

5.  Adjusting     rooms,     en- 

tirely hand  work.  .  .  . 

6.  Mounting  rooms,  chiefly 

hand  work 

118.8 

117.1 
1179 

7.  Turning  and  milling,  en- 

tirely machine  work. 

8.  Polishers    and    lacquer- 

ers,     entirely     hand 
work 

118.1 
117  7 

9.  Engraving,    entirely 
hand  work 

119.3 

10.  Molders,  entirely  hand 
work 

1149 

11.  Carpenters,  part    hand, 

part  machine 

12.  Case     makers,     chiefly 

hand  work 

120.3 
112  7 

233 

31.6 

9.6 

61.9 

71.9 

100 

116.2 

The  most  interesting  fact  that  emerges  from  this  table 
is  that  the  largest  increase  in  efficiency  occurred  in  the  coarser 
kinds  of  work.  Groups  4,  7,  and  11,  which  comprise  almost 
entirely  machine  workers,  showed  the  greatest  improvement. 
Only  one  small  group  of  20  workers,  highly  skilled  hand  grind- 

i6o 


ECONOMIC   ASPECT  OF    REGULATION 

ers,  did  not  produce  or  earn  as  much  in  eight  hours  as  in 
nine.     They  failed  by  3  per  cent. 

One  more  table  of  figures,  and  we  can  turn  to  the  argu- 
ment which  Abbe  based  upon  his  statistics.  He  sought  for 
corroboration  of  the  astonishing  fact  that  eight  hours'  work 
not  only  equalled  but  exceeded  nine  hours'  work,  and  he 
found  it  in  a  perfectly  objective  standard  of  measurement; 
that  is,  the  amount  of  power  used  during  the  four  weeks  be- 
fore and  four  weeks  after  the  introduction  of  the  eight-hour 
day. 

The  650  different  machines  in  the  Zeiss  Works  were 
driven  by  one  central  dynamo  (not  connected  with  the  light- 
ing). The  amount  of  power  used  was  determined  by  hourly 
readings  of  a  wattmeter.  In  regard  to  the  expenditure  of 
power.  Abbe  makes  a  distinction  between  the  actual  amount 
used,  when  it  is  transmitted  and  the  machines  are  in  operation 
(der  eigentliche  NutzeflFect),  and  the  so-called  "waste"  of 
power,  when  the  plant  is  "running  dead,"  as  it  is  called;  that 
is,  when  power  is  turned  on  and  available  but  the  machines 
are  not  in  use, — as  just  before  work  begins,  etc.  (der  so- 
genannte  Leergang). 

The  wattmeter  readings  showed  that  during  the  last 
four  weeks  of  the  nine-hour  system,  the  average  amount  of 
power  transmitted  per  hour  was  49.2  kilowatts.  By  a  special 
contrivance  it  was  shown  that  during  this  time,  the  hourly 
"waste  of  power"  (the  plant  "running  dead")  was  about 
half  the  total  use,  that  is,  26  k.  w.  Thus  the  actual  amount 
of  power  used  averaged  23.2  k.  w,  per  hour.  After  the 
eight-hour  day  was  introduced  the  amount  of  power  trans- 
mitted rose  from  49.2  k.  w.  to  52  k.  w.  per  hour.  The 
actual  amount  used  rose  from  23.2  k.  w.  to  26.0  k.  w.  per 
hour;  that  is,  in  the  ratio  of  100  :  112.  This  shows  that 
eight  hours'  work  just  equalled  the  previous  nine  hours'  work, 
since,  as  we  have  seen  before,  for  our  mathematical  basis, 
8  :  9=110  :  112.5. 

But  in  effect,  in  many  of  the  operations,  the  output  not 
only  equalled  but  exceeded  that  of  the  previous  nine-hour 
I'  i6i 


FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 

regime;  and  the  wattmeter  readings  proved  this  also.  For 
the  majority  of  the  machines  in  the  works  (three-fourths  of 
them)  were  not  wholly  automatic.  They  were  machines 
which  the  workers  used  like  tools,  using  more  or  less  power 
according  to  their  intensity  of  application,  by  shortening 
pauses  between  operations,  pressing  more  or  less  heavily  in 
grinding  and  polishing,  and  in  similar  ways. 

Hence  the  increased  amount  of  power  used  in  the  eight- 
hour  day,  as  shown  by  the  hourly  readings,  was  to  be  ascribed 
not  to  all  the  machines,  but  to  three-quarters  of  the  machines 
only.  The  ratio  of  increase  for  these,  where  the  men  regu- 
lated the  amount  of  power  used,  was  larger  than  the  given 
figure  of  100  :  112  which  included  all  the  machines.  For 
three-quarters  of  the  machines,  the  ratio  of  increase  was 
higher;  that  is,  as  100  :  116.  In  other  words,  they  exceeded 
in  eight  hours  by  3  per  cent  the  output  of  the  nine-hour  day, 
confirming  the  conclusion  previously  proved  by  the  earnings 
of  the  piece-workers. 

Such  being  the  evidence  of  cold  statistics,  the  man  of 
science  in  Abbe  began  to  search  for  the  causes.  He  examined 
the  external  conditions  of  work  during  the  trial  year  and  the 
year  before.  They  had  not  markedly  varied.  The  demand 
for  Zeiss  products  and  the  consequent  pressure  at  the  works 
had  been  the  same.  There  had  been  no  extremes  of  heat  or 
cold  in  the  seasons,  which,  as  he  found,  sometimes  affect  the 
output  of  highly  skilled  mechanics.  In  fact,  the  workers  had 
for  the  most  part  been  unconscious  of  their  increased  in- 
tensity of  work.  Many  would  not  believe  that  they  had 
produced  more  in  eight  hours  than  in  nine  until  shown  the 
proof.  The  figures  showing  the  weekly  amount  of  power 
used  confirmed  what  Abbe  learned  direct  from  the  men. 
Some  had  begun  to  work  with  feverish  intensity  when  the 
new  day  was  introduced,  but  had  given  it  up  in  disgust  after 
the  first  week,  finding  the  effort  exhausting.  During  the 
second  week  the  output  of  these  workers  had  consequently 
fallen  below  the  nine-hour  day;  but  by  the  third  or  fourth 
week  they  had  recovered  their  normal  pace,  and  unknown  to 

162 


ECONOMIC    ASPECT   OF    REGULATION 

themselves,  were  equalling  and  surpassing  the  work  of  the 
longer  day. 

Abbe  concluded  that  the  adaptation  of  the  worker  to 
the  shorter  day,  his  intensity  of  application,  was  largely 
automatic,  and  did  not  depend  primarily  on  his  good  or  ill 
will.  This  was  proved  also  by  the  firm's  previous  experience 
with  overtime.  Under  the  nine-hour  regime,  the  men  had 
been  required  to  work  one  hour  overtime  at  seasons  of  pres- 
sure. But  it  had  been  found  that  their  efficiency  did  not  keep 
up  for  any  length  of  time.  It  fell  off  in  about  two  weeks,  in 
spite  of  the  men's  evident  desire  to  earn  the  25  per  cent  higher 
wages  of  overtime.  One  November  Abbe  himself  had  tried 
the  experiment,  when  the  men  were  eager  to  earn  more  just 
before  Christmas.  But  the  result  was  the  same.  The  out- 
put of  overtime  deteriorated  in  one  week,  and  by  the  third 
or  fourth  week  it  was  practically  nil. 

Deeper  than  good  or  ill  will,  then,  must  lie  the  causes  for 
men's  variation  of  efficiency  in  the  long  and  the  short  day. 
Some  common  factors  must  explain  it,  common  to  men  as 
widely  diverse  in  capacities  and  nationalities  as  the  machine- 
shop  workers  and  miners  of  Northumberland  and  Durham 
and  the  Thuringian  lense  grinders  and  mechanics. 

These  common  factors  Abbe  found  in  precisely  the  two 
causes  to  which  we  have  devoted  so  much  attention:  the 
laws  governing  man's  physiologic  nature,  and  the  new  strain 
of  industry. 

We  need  not  repeat  here  Abbe's  admirable  physiological 
analysis.  He  showed  how  the  vague  subjective  conception  of 
fatigue  and  repair  rests  upon  objective  measurable  metabolic 
changes  within  the  human  body;  and  he  concluded  that  the 
workman  whose  daily  deficits,  however  small,  are  allowed  to 
stand  from  day  to  day,  cannot  in  the  end  escape  bankruptcy. 

Some  of  Abbe's  keenest  remarks  deal  with  the  simplest 
facts — facts  so  simple  that  everyone  has  always  known  them, 
and  has  lost  sight  of  their  significance  through  very  famil- 
iarity. But  the  keen  mind  can  still  pluck  out  the  inner  sig- 
nificance of  words  and  facts  that  have  become  mere  "  polished 

163 


FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 

surfaces"  of  commonplace  for  the  rest  of  us.  Thus  Abbe 
showed  how,  owing  to  the  minute  sub-division  of  modern 
labor,  the  workman  incurs  a  certain  amount  of  perfectly 
passive  fatigue,  irrespective  of  his  actual  production.  The 
modern  worker  performs  only  one  repeated  operation  or  the 
fragment  of  an  operation  in  the  construction  of  a  whole.  He 
sits  or  stands  hour  after  hour  in  exactly  the  same  unchanged 
attitudes,  unvaryingly  subjected  to  the  same  noise,  and  the 
same  need  of  attention  (to  guard  himself  and  others)  when 
he  works  with  moving  machinery.  These  things  would  be 
extremely  fatiguing,  even  if  no  work  were  to  be  performed, 
and  in  the  ten-hour  day  the  workman  has  to  endure  daily 
two  hours  more  of  such  purely  passive  fatigue,  without  there- 
by accomplishing  any  more  work  than  in  the  eight-hour  day. 
It  is  as  unreasonable,  says  Abbe,  as  though  the  employer 
said  to  his  workmen:  "You  may  finish  your  work  in  eight 
hours,  but  then  you  must  remain  two  hours  longer,  standing 
or  sitting,  in  the  same  limited  attitudes,  hearing  the  same 
roar,  exerting  the  same  effort  of  attention,  but  doing  no 
work." 

Moreover,  since  the  metabolic  equilibrium  is  regained 
only  by  rest  and  recuperation,  the  length  of  working  hours 
is  of  critical  importance.  The  rate  of  recuperation  depends 
clearly  upon  many  variables — age,  state  of  health,  state  of 
mind,  food,  and  the  like.  But  the  short  day  gives,  at  least, 
the  best  chances  of  repair  to  those  parts  of  the  organism 
most  exerted  in  work,  and  while  after  ten  hours'  work  there 
are  but  fourteen  left  for  all  the  other  purposes  of  life,  after 
eight  hours'  work  there  are  sixteen  left. 

Finally,  as  to  the  greater  intensity  of  work  in  the  short- 
ened day.  Abbe  explained  it  also  in  physiological  terms. 
Good  will  or  ill  will  does  not,  in  the  end,  affect  the  matter. 
Within  certain  limits  the  workman  adapts  himself  auto- 
matically to  the  shortened  day  by  increasing  his  speed  and 
his  effort,  without  noticeably  increasing  his  exertions,  just  as 
one  can  walk  a  mile  somewhat  faster  or  somewhat  slower 
without  appreciable  difference.     The  short  workday  makes 

164 


ECONOMIC  ASPECT  OF  REGULATION 

this  closer  application  possible  without  injury  to  the  organism, 
by  allowing  the  worker  more  time  off  for  tissue  repair  between 
working  days,  and  by  eliminating  so  much  of  the  "passive 
fatigue"  which  we  have  discussed  above.  Every  one  has  a 
maximum  or  optimum  of  production,  when  he  accomplishes 
most  in  the  shortest  time,  and  the  reduction  of  hours  is 
followed  by  increased  efficiency  up  to  the  point  where  the 
greater  speed  and  intensity,  automatically  acquired,  over- 
passes physiological  limits.  When  the  worker's  natural 
adaptation  to  the  shorter  day  is  not  sufficient,  so  that  pressure 
and  effort  must  spur  him  to  accomplish  too  large  a  task  in 
too  short  a  time,  the  benefits  of  reduced  hours  are  lost.  For 
the  excessive  intensity  of  effort  costs  the  worker  more  than 
is  repaired  by  the  longer  space  of  time  allowed  off  for  recup- 
eration. 

Just  where  each  man's  maximum  lies,  when  he  can  ac- 
complish most  in  the  shortest  time  without  injury  to  himself, 
Abbe  thought  essentially  a  matter  of  special  investigation. 
But  he  concluded,  from  his  own  extended  observations  and 
from  the  experience  of  others  in  Germany  and  England,  that 
for  about  three-fourths  of  the  industrial  workers  of  Germany 
nine  hours  was  too  long  a  day  in  which  to  reach  their  maxi- 
mum and  eight  hours  not  too  short  to  reach  it.  He  therefore 
recommended  a  program  still  commonly  held  radical — the 
gradual  reduction  of  the  workday  not  to  nine  but  to  eight 
hours  for  German  industries,  in  the  interests  of  economic 
development  and  of  greater  national  efficiency. 

Abbe  made  this  recommendation  before  the  era  of 
Germany's  greatest  industrial  successes,  before  the  Germans 
had,  as  an  expert  on  industrial  efficiency  writes,*  "advanced 
their  industrial  condition,  which  twenty  years  ago  was  a  jest, 
to  the  first  place  in  Europe  if  not  in  the  world"  by  realizing 
"  the  supreme  importance  of  efficiency  as  an  economic  factor." 
But  ten  years  ago  Abbe  had  a  keen  eye  for  Germany's  then 
growing  rivalry  with  British  industries,  and  he  foresaw  that 

*  Gantt,  H.  L.:  Work,  Wages  and  Profits,  page  179.  Published  by 
The  Engineering  Magazine,  New  York,  1910. 

165 


FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 

the  secret  of  ultimate  success  lay  in  the  development  of 
greater  national  efficiency.  Germany's  most  valuable  cap- 
ital seemed  to  him  the  intelligence  and  initiative  of  her  work- 
ing people,  a  buried  treasure.  And  he  urged  the  develop- 
ment of  that  capital, — the  enfranchisement  of  the  capacities 
of  the  nation, — by  all  the  resources  of  science  and  education. 
He  felt  certain  that  a  wiser  organization  of  industry  should 
allow  the  workers  a  wider  margin  of  leisure  and  time  for 
development  away  from  the  inevitably  deadening  monotony 
of  minutely  sub-divided  labor. 

Germany  had  been  spared,  he  said,  the  worst  conse- 
quences of  unregulated  industrial  expansion.  The  ten-hour 
agitation  in  England,  preceding  and  following  the  bill  of 
1847,  which  fixed  a  normal  day  for  women  and  children  in 
textile  mills  and  thereby  reduced  the  hours  of  men  in  the 
same  mills,  kindled  a  light  which  had  illuminated  all  Europe 
(der  Widerschein  des  Lichtes — in  England — hat  ganz  Europa 
erleuchtet).  Abbe  himself  had  seen  the  reflection  of  that 
light  in  the  early  50's.  For  as  a  young  child,  he  had  seen  his 
father,  an  old  man  at  thirty-eight,  working  sixteen  hours  a 
day  in  a  Thuringian  spinning  mill.  The  British  Ten  Hours 
Bill  first  greeted  by  employers  as  the  death  knell  of  industry, 
and  as  the  signal  for  British  capital  to  migrate  to  other  lands 
(a  fable  how  often  resurrected  since  that  date!)  soon  showed 
its  true  results.  German  mills,  including  the  one  in  which 
Abbe's  father  worked,  soon  followed  the  English  precedent 
and  gradually  reduced  their  hours  from  sixteen  to  eleven  per 
day. 

Thus  Abbe  knew  of  his  own  experience  what  the  short- 
ened day  meant  to  the  laborer  and  his  family.  He  always 
looked  upon  industrial  problems  as  a  son  of  the  people,  as 
well  as  an  owner  and  capitalist  (mit  dem  Auge  des  Arbeit- 
sohnes,  dem  nicht  unter  der  Hand  Unternehmer — und  Kap- 
italistenaugen  wachsen  woUten).*  And  his  many-sided 
experience  crystallized  into  a  belief  that  to  develop  Germany's 
flesh  and  blood  capital,  one  of  the  most  important  needs  was 

*  Abbe,  op.  cit.,  p.  4. 

i66 


ECONOMIC    ASPECT   OF    REGULATION 

to  compress  work  into  as  few  hours  as  possible  without  over- 
strain or  impaired  efficiency,  so  as  to  widen  the  ranges  of 
leisure  and  development. 

7.     THE  TREND  TOWARD  SHORTER  HOURS  IN  THE 
UNITED  STATES 

We  have  concentrated  our  attention  upon  these  three 
examples  of  reduced  hours — English,  Belgian  and  German — 
because  they  are  specific  and  are  to  some  degree  substantiated 
by  detailed  statistics.  A  host  of  other  less  specific  examples 
might  be  cited  from  a  wide  range  of  industries  in  which 
working  hours  have  been  successfully  shortened  without 
financial  disaster.  The  testimony  of  employers  and  manu- 
facturers, showing  how  efficiency  has  risen  and  output  flour- 
ished when  the  workday  has  been  reduced  to  nine  and  even 
to  eight  hours,  may  be  found  detailed  in  various  volumes  de- 
voted to  this  topic*  These  include  industries  employing 
men  alone,  and  industries  employing  women  alone,  and  those 
which  employ  both  sexes;  industries  mechanical,  textile,  and 
chemical;  trades  as  diverse  as  mining  and  the  manufacture 
of  jams;  shoe  making  and  ship  building;  hardware,  glass, 
bottle  making  and  cigar  making;  printing  and  the  structural 
trades. 

We  do  not  here  refer  at  length  to  Australasia's  half 
century  of  success  with  the  short  workday.  In  1856  the 
eight-hour  day  was  introduced  in  the  Australian  building 
trades  by  trade  union  agreements.  Since  that  time  the 
movement  has  widened  and  steadily  grown,  until  now  it  em- 
braces practically  all  but  the  manual  workers  in  clothing  and 
other  domestic  industries.  But  a  small  and  distant  colony 
is,  as  regards  trade  and  commerce,  in  too  isolated  a  position 
to  be  of  much  practical  concern  in  our  discussion.     The  Aus- 

*  Some  of  the  best  popular  books  on  this  subject  are:  Webb,  Sidney, 
and  Cox,  H.:  The  Eight  Hours  Day.  London,  W.  Scott,  1891.  Hadfieid 
and  Gibbons:  A  Shorter  Working  Day.  London,  Methuen  and  Co.,  1892. 
Rae,  John:  Eight  Hours  for  Work.  London,  Macmillan  and  Co.,  1894. 
Weber,  Adna  T.:  The  Eight  Hours  Movement.  In  Report  of  the  New 
York  Bureau  of  Labor  Statistics,  1900. 

167 


FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 

tralian  industries  which  affect  the  world  market  are  chiefly 
agricultural  and  stock  raising.  Hence  the  Australian  eight- 
hour  day  has  had  little  significance  in  world  competition. 
The  experience  of  Australasia  in  maintaining  a  workday 
shorter  than  the  rest  of  the  world  is  in  itself  a  chapter  of  deep 
interest,  but  we  cannot  generalize  from  these  facts  as  we  can 
from  facts  and  figures  of  a  society  more  nearly  akin  to  our  own. 

We  are,  indeed,  so  largely  thrown  back  upon  facts  and 
figures  from  other  countries  because  our  own  are  the  most 
meager  and  least  satisfactory  of  any  industrial  nation.  No 
American  studies  of  output  have  been  published  which  can 
compare  with  the  three  which  we  have  analyzed  above.* 

The  chief  confirmation  which  our  country  affords  of  the 
point  we  have  been  examining  in  detail, — the  effect  upon  out- 
put of  the  shortened  workday, — is  the  actual  movement  of 
industry  in  the  direction  of  shorter  hours,  a  movement  not 
merely  in  posse,  but  for  some  time  past  in  esse,  existent. 

We  have  already  pointed  out  that  during  the  past  thirty- 
six  years  there  has  been  a  continuous,  although  very  slow, 
movement  towards  shorter  working  hours  for  women,  se- 
cured through  legislation  in  their  behalf.  There  has  been 
also  a  slow  but  certain  march  towards  shorter  hours  in  men's 
employments,  especially  where  strong  organizations  of  work- 
ing men  deal  collectively  with  their  employers  through  trade 
agreements.  But  here  we  face  an  extraordinary  paradox! 
For  while  working  men  are  bargaining  for  and  obtaining  the 
eight-hour  day  in  many  of  the  great  trades  throughout  the 
country,  women  and  the  laws  in  their  behalf  limp  in  the  rear, 
still  for  the  most  part  aiming  at  a  ten-hour  working  day. 
Eight  hours  for  men,  ten  hours  for  women  and  girls, — an 
ironic  commentary  on  the  cast  of  our  society. 

*  For  an  interesting  reference  to  a  successful  American  experiment 
in  reducing  the  workday  see  The  Steel  Workers  by  John  A.  Fitch,  p.  180. 
(The  Pittsburgh  Survey.  Russell  Sage  Foundation  Publication.  New  York, 
Charities  Publication  Committee,  1911.)  In  1904,  the  Sharon  Steel  Hoop 
Co.,  at  Sharon,  Pa.,  reduced  the  hours  of  about  150  men  engaged  in  the 
finishing  mills  from  ten  to  eight  hours.  The  tonnage  turned  out  is  said  to 
have  remained  the  same,  and  the  general  opinion  in  Sharon  was  in  all  ways 
favorable  to  the  shorter  day. 

1 68 


ECONOMIC    ASPECT   OF    REGULATION 

In  this  instance  the  discrimination  against  women  is 
particularly  paradoxical,  because  for  many  years  the  only 
effective  reduction  of  men's  hours  of  work  came  through  the 
laws  reducing  women's  hours.  Men  who  worked  in  textile 
mills  with  women,  shared  all  the  benefits  of  the  long  ten- 
hour  agitation  in  England  and  America.  They  were  and 
are  automatically  dismissed  with  the  women  at  the  close  of 
the  ten-hour  day.  This  automatic  though  tacit  inclusion  of 
the  men  has  been  recognized  since  the  beginnings  of  leg- 
islation, and  at  various  times  the  laws  for  women  were 
most  hotly  opposed  by  those  who  resented  that  workingmen 
were  obtaining  indirectly,  "skulking  behind  the  petticoats," 
a  protection  which  they  could  not  secure  openly  for  them- 
selves.* 

Yet  in  the  great  trades  which  during  the  past  twenty- 
five  years  have  reduced  the  workday  to  nine  or  to  eight 
hours, — such  as  the  cigar  makers,  the  carpenters  and  builders, 
the  printers,  granite  cutters  and  brewers, — few  if  any  women 
share  the  benefit. 

If  the  short  day  were  the  enemy  of  production,  as  its 
opponents  assert,  and  actually  led  to  a  lowered  output  in  the 
long  run,  the  progress  towards  an  eight-hour  day  in  the  great 
men's  trades  would  long  since  have  broken  down.  No  trade 
could  persist  and  grow  which  was  permanently  carried  on  at 
a  loss.  The  trend  towards  the  shortened  workday  has  been 
retarded  by  the  mistakes  of  trade  unions  as  well  as  by  the 
greed  of  employers;  but  it  is  a  fact  and  proceeds  today  only 
because,  whether  recognized  or  not,  it  is  in  harmony  with  the 
elemental  facts  which  have  emerged  from  our  study;  because 
economic  efficiency  rises  and  falls  with  the  worker's  physical 
efficiency,  and  whatever  contributes  to  the  latter  tends  to 
raise  the  former. 

The  United  States  Industrial  Commission  appointed  by 

Congress  in  1898,  which  sat  for  almost  four  years  hearing 

evidence  from  700  witnesses  on  capital,  labor,  agriculture, 

and  immigration,  devoted  considerable  attention  in  its  final 

*  Webb,  Sidney,  and  Cox,  H.:  The  Eight  Hours  Day,  p.  20. 

169 


FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 

report*  to  the  economic  effects  of  reducing  the  workday. 
It  is  certain,  says  the  report,  that  any  program  for  reducing 
the  intensity  of  exertion  must  fail. 

"The  entire  tendency  of  industry  is  in  the  direction  of 
an  increased  exertion.  .  .  .  This  being  true,  there  is  but 
one  alternative  if  the  working  population  is  to  be  protected 
in  its  health  and  trade  longevity,  namely,  a  reduction  of  the 
hours  of  labor." 

The  commission  found  that: 

"  In  all  cases  where  reductions  have  been  brought  about 
there  have  been  strenuous  objections  and  alarming  predic- 
tions, but  after  a  very  brief  period  of  trial  these  objections 
have  disappeared,  except  where  lack  of  uniformity  remains  a 
ground  of  complaint;  and  employer  and  employe,  with  this 
exception,  alike  have  agreed  upon  the  advantages  of  the 
change."  f 

The  best  example  of  the  effects  of  shorter  hours  on 
output  deals  with  bituminous  coal  mining.  A  table  was 
compiled  from  the  report  of  the  United  States  Geological 
Survey  and  from  the  Illinois  Commissioners  of  Labor  show- 
ing the  production  of  bituminous  coal  for  the  six  years  1895 
to  1900. 

The  eight-hour  day  was  introduced  in  the  bituminous 
fields  during  the  latter  three  months  of  1897.  From  this 
table  we  see  that,  during  the  two  years  1895  and  1896  under 
the  ten-hour  system,  the  average  output  for  the  country  at 
large  for  each  working  man  per  day  was  2.9  and  2.72  tons; 
while  in  1897,  during  the  latter  three  months  of  which  the 
eight-hour  day  prevailed,  the  average  output  per  man  rose 
to  3.03  tons  per  day,  and  during  1898,  1899,  and  1900  (three 
years  of  the  eight-hour  day,  in  the  majority  of  the  coal  mines) 
the  average  output  ranged  from  2.98  to  3.09  tons.  Each 
year  of  the  eight-hour  day  shows  for  the  country  as  a  whole 
a  larger  output  per  day  for  each  workman  than  the  highest 
output  of  the  ten-hour  day. 

*  Final  Report  of  the  Industrial  Commission,  1902.    Vol.  XIX,  p.  764. 
t  Ibid.,  p.  774. 

170 


ECONOMIC    ASPECT   OF    REGULATION 


PRODUCTION    OF    BITUMINOUS    COAL    IN    THE    UNITED    STATES, 

1895-1900* 


Year 


Output, 
Short  tons 


Average 

number 

employed 


Total  days 
worked 


Average  ' 

output  Per  cent 
per  day,  ,  mined  by 

Short  machines 
tons     1 


1894 
1895 
1896 
1897 
1898 
1899 
1900 


1894 
1895 
1896 
1897 
1898 
1899 
1900 


1894 
1895 
1896 
1897 
1898 
1899 
1900 


118,820,405 

171 

135,118,193 

194 

137,640,276 

192 

147,609,985 

196 

166,592,023 

211 

193,321,987 

234 

212.513,912 

234 

11,909,856 

136   1 

13,355,806 

176 

12,875,202 

161 

12,196,942 

148   ' 

14,516,867 

169 

16,500,270 

200 

18,988,150 

215 

39,912,463 
50,217,228 
49,557,453 
54,417,974 
65,165,133 
74,150,175 
79,842,326 


165 
206 
206 
205 
229 
245 
242 


Country  at  Large 


244,603 
239,962 
244,171 
247,817 
255,717 
271,027 
304,975 

Ohio 
27,105  [ 
24,644  i 
25,500 
26,410 
26,986 
26,038 
27,628 

Pennsylvania 
75,010 
71,130 
72,625 

n.in 

79.611 
82,812 
92.692 


41,827,113 

2.84 

46,232.628 

2.90 

46,808,832 

2.72 

48,572,132 

3.03 

53,956,287 

3.09  ! 

63,420.318 

3.05 

71,364,150 

2.98 

3,686,280 

3.24 

4,337,344 

3.08 

4.105.500 

3.13 

3.908.680 

3.12 

4,560,634 

3.18  ' 

5,207.600 

3.17 

5.940,020 

3.19 

12,376,650 

3.22 

14,652.780 

3.43 

14,960,750 

3.31 

15,840.760 

3.44 

18.230.919 

3.57 

20.288.940 

2.66 

22.431,464 

3.56 

19.17 
16.19 
20.39 
23.00 
25.15 


26.16 
31.51 
35.76 
41.35 
46.53 


12.29 
16.40 
25.34 
29.67 
33.65 


Illinois 

1894 

16,429,032 

183.1 

35,398 

6,481,527 

2.53 

1895 

17,026,429 

182.2 

35,539 

6,475,315 

2.63 

1896 

18,995,160 

186.0 

34.069 

6,336,915 

3.00 

19.57 

1897 

19,365,847 

185.5 

31,084 

5.766,260 

3.36 

19.66 

1898 

17,885,327 

174.7 

32,223 

5,629.518 

3.17 

18.36 

1899 

22,497,067 

205.7 

34,031 

7,000.324 

3.21 

24.90 

1900 

24,147,771 

214.0 

36,233 

7,753.921 

3.11 

19.73 

The  table  also  shows  the  increase  in  the  use  of  machinery 
in  coal  mining.  But  it  must  not  be  assumed  that  the  in- 
creased use  of  machinery  is  responsible  for  the  larger  daily 

*  Op.  cit.,  pp.  770-771. 
171 


FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 

output  of  coal  for  each  workman.  In  one  state,  Illinois,  the 
proportion  of  coal  mined  by  machines  remained  fairly  con- 
stant; yet,  comparing  the  two  years  of  the  ten-hour  system, 
1895  and  1896,  with  the  three  eight-hour  years,  1898,  1899, 
and  1900,  it  can  be  seen  that  the  output  for  each  workday 
has  increased  considerably.  The  ten-hour  years  have  an 
average  output  per  day  for  each  employe  of  2.53  to  3  tons; 
while  under  the  eight-hour  system  the  three  years,  1898  to 
1900,  show  an  average  of  3.11  to  3.21  tons.  This,  says  the 
report : 

" .  .  .  must  be  ascribed  solely  to  the  increased  energy 
and  promptness  of  the  workman,  since,  as  already  stated, 
the  proportion  of  coal  mined  by  machinery  in  that  state  has 
remained  constant.  .  .  .  These  tables  bring  statistical 
evidence  to  support  the  testimony  of  witnesses  before  the 
Industrial  Commission  that  in  the  industry  of  coal  mining 
the  shorter  working  day  has  increased  the  efficiency  of  both 
the  workmen  and  the  management." 

An  interesting  point  brought  out  by  the  commission 
is  the  incentive  to  invention  and  greater  economy  on  the 
part  of  the  employes  under  the  short-hour  system.  When 
working  hours  are  diminished,  the  loss  in  time  tends  to  be  at 
least  in  part  compensated,  almost  automatically,  by  time  and 
labor  saving  methods  of  production,  as  well  as  by  increased 
energy  on  the  part  of  the  workers.  Doubtless  it  is  true  that  a 
good  machine  often  will  not  run  faster  in  eight  hours  than 
in  ten  hours,  but  new  machines  and  new  devices  are  con- 
tinually invented  to  improve  upon  the  old.  As  the  commis- 
sion pointedly  says: 

"While  a  particular  machine  will  not  go  faster  in  eight 
hours  than  in  ten  hours,  the  substitute  for  that  machine, 
which  the  eight-hour  day  presses  upon  the  employer  to  adopt, 
will  go  faster.  Less  hours  in  this  way  have  an  indirect  as 
well  as  a  direct  compensating  effect.  Not  only  do  they  make 
it  possible  for  the  workman  to  keep  up  his  intensity  of  per- 
sonal exertion  during  each  hour  of  the  day  and  to  work  more 
days  at  a  high  rate  of  speed,  but  they  cause  the  employer  to 

172 


ECONOMIC   ASPECT   OF    REGULATION 

economize  his  labor  at  every  point  and  to  improve  its  quality 
by  better  selection." 

Moreover,  it  must  be  borne  in  mind  that  some  of  the 
most  useful  and  time  saving  inventions  and  adaptations  of 
machinery  have  not  come  from  scientific  laboratories.  They 
have  been  invented  by  American  mechanics  themselves  in 
the  course  of  their  work — work  whose  intensity  was  not  so 
great  as  to  destroy  all  the  initiative  and  nervous  vitality 
which  has  been  in  the  past  associated  with  the  American 
mechanic  and  workman.  The  shortened  workday,  there- 
fore, in  this  connection,  has  a  double  advantage.  On  the 
one  hand,  it  offers  a  premium  on  labor  saving  devices  to  com- 
pensate for  the  actual  curtailment  of  working  time.  On  the 
other  hand,  it  preserves  in  the  workman  that  handiness  and 
mental  alertness  from  which  have  sprung  many  of  the  minor 
labor  saving  devices  which  we  like  to  consider  typically 
American. 

The  commission  concludes  that: 

"A  reduction  in  hours  has  never  lessened  the  working 
people's  ability  to  compete  in  the  markets  of  the  world. 
States  with  shorter  workdays  actually  manufacture  their 
product  at  a  lower  cost  than  states  with  longer  workdays." 

Conceivably,  hours  might  be  reduced  to  the  point  where 
increased  cost  of  production  would  over-balance  the  gains  to 
health  and  efficiency.     On  this  point  the  commission  holds: 

"  If  it  were  a  question  of  reducing  hours  to  absurdly  low 
limits,  nothing  could  be  said  in  favor  of  the  movement;  but 
where — as  is  actually  the  case — the  goal  set  up  by  the  work- 
ing people  is  the  eight-hour  day,  and  there  is  no  proposition 
and  no  way  for  a  five-  or  a  six-hour  day,  the  arguments  for 
reduction  need  no  qualification  from  the  standpoint  of  the 
workers  and  little  from  that  of  employers."* 

One  final  point  needs  to  be  considered  in  connection  with 
the  output  of  the  shortened  day;  that  is,  the  effect  of  regula- 
*0p.  cit.,  p.  773. 
•73 


FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 

tion  upon  wages.  Upon  this  point  little  can  be  dogmatically 
asserted.  When  we  consider  the  rise  and  fall  of  wages  in  a 
large  sense,  and  throughout  a  long  period,  a  great  variety  of 
factors  intervene.  The  causes  of  business  depression  and 
business  prosperity  are  themselves  obscure  and  often  arise 
from  sources  incredibly  remote  and  fantastic.  Drought, 
poor  crops,  pestilence,  wars — both  of  arms  and  men,  or  of 
tariffs — often  the  mere  fear  of  these,  and  things  less  tangible, 
such  as  "loss  of  confidence,"  set  the  solid  business  world,  like 
a  flimsy  fabric,  aquiver;  a  sentiment  can  again  quiet  it. 
With  such  extreme  instability  of  values,  wages  are  naturally 
bound  up;  cuts  or  increases  respond  to  the  business  fluctua- 
tions, and  it  would  be  idle  to  ascribe  the  fall  and  rise  of  wages 
to  one  isolated  phenomenon,  such  as  the  limitation  of  working 
hours. 

And  yet,  amid  this  flux  of  things,  two  uncontroverted 
facts  stand  out  clearly:  first,  that  the  best  wages  are  paid  in 
the  most  strictly  regulated  trades.  Where  the  limitation  of 
hours  is  most  defined  and  best  enforced,  wages  are  invariably 
highest.  The  unregulated  trades,  with  the  longest  hours, 
are  the  most  sweated  and  underpaid.  Second,  while  we  can- 
not assert  that  the  operation  of  factory  laws  has  been  the 
direct  cause  of  higher  wages,  there  is  no  doubt  that  the  sequel 
of  shorter  hours  has  almost  invariably  been  a  rise  in  wages, 
even  after  a  temporary  loss.*  Output,  as  we  have  seen,  has 
been  maintained  and  increased  in  the  shortened  hours.  The 
main  cause  for  this  has  been  the  increased  efficiency  of  the 
workers,  and  this  is  the  explanation  also  of  the  seeming 
paradox  of  twelve  hours'  pay  for  ten  hours'  work,  and  ten 
hours'  pay  for  eight  hours'  work. 

*  See  Part  1 1  of  this  volume,  pp.  395^07. 


174 


VI 

REGULARITY  OF  EMPLOYMENT:    FATIGUE  AND 
OVERTIME  WORK 

1.    OVERTIME  AS  A  SEPARATE  ISSUE 

THE  discussion  of  overtime  is  something  to  be  sharply 
differentiated  from  the  general  question  of  reducing 
the  length  of  the  workday.  It  is  true  that  when  over- 
time is  added  to  the  day's  work,  making  it  nine  to  twelve 
hours  or  longer  as  the  case  may  be,  all  the  arguments  that 
apply  against  the  long  day  apply  against  overtime  as  well. 
It  is  bad  because  it  results  in  too  long  a  stretch  of  working 
hours,  with  all  that  implies  for  subject  and  object,  worker  and 
work. 

How,  indeed,  could  it  be  otherwise?  For  whether  the 
last  exhausting  hours  of  the  day  be  called  "overtime,"  or  are 
a  regular  part  of  the  day's  work,  the  practical  results  of  such 
protracted  hours  must  be  the  same. 

But  overtime  means  something  more  than  an  over-long 
period  of  work.  It  means  irregular  work;  it  means  evening 
work  after  and  in  addition  to  day  work,  often  without  pre- 
vious notice  to  the  employe;  it  means  in  many  trades  that 
worst  sequence,  overwork  followed  by  out-of-work,  a  "rush" 
season  of  too  much  work  with  the  slack  season  of  no  work  and 
destitution  close  behind  it.  Hence  in  discussing  overtime, 
besides  the  evident  injuries  to  health  and  output,  a  number  of 
other  fundamental  points  need  to  be  taken  into  account  and 
realized.  Is  overtime  inevitable  and  uncontrollable?  How 
can  it  be  replaced  or  avoided?  This  discussion  is  the  more 
important  because  the  really  large  issues  involved  in  over- 
time, seemingly  so  subordinate  and  technical  a  question, 
are,  as  we  have  pointed  out,  so  often  totally  misunderstood 

175 


FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 

or  ignored.  These  large  issues  we  will  attempt  to  outline 
under  two  heads:  first,  the  relation  between  overtime  and 
greater  continuity  or  regularity  of  employment;  and  second 
(in  Chapter  VI II),  the  relation  between  overtime  and  the 
crux  of  all  legislation,  enforcement. 

First,  however,  as  to  the  evident  likenesses  between 
overtime  and  the  long  day  in  general.  On  the  physiological 
side,  we  have  seen  that  overtime,  like  other  forms  of  overwork, 
injures  health]  because,  in  one  word,  it  strains.  It  post- 
pones rest  beyond  the  point  when  rest  can  normally  accom- 
plish its  office  of  repair.  "Too  late,"  is  nature's  answer  to 
the  slack  period  or  let-up  after  an  overtime  bout  in  factory  or 
store,  and  grievous  are  nature's  revenges  for  the  postpone- 
ment of  our  metabolic  debts.  Through  the  overstrain  of 
that  mysterious  agency  which,  as  we  have  seen,  "directs, 
controls,  and  harmonizes  the  work  of  the  parts  of  the  organic 
machine" — our  ramified  nervous  system — any  or  every 
organ  may  retain  the  semblance  of  perfect  health  and  may 
yet  refuse  to  function.  Nervous  dyspepsia,  nervous  palpita- 
tion of  the  heart,  nervous  eyestrain,  and  such  functional  ills 
are  well  recognized  products  of  some  form  of  "over-doing," 
as  we  call  it  among  the  well-to-do.  Among  working  people, 
the  same  disorders  and  their  causes  have,  in  this  country, 
received  scant  notice.  These  are  what  overtime  work  invites 
and  brings  with  it,  requiring  during  over-long  hours  increas- 
ing stimuli  for  wearied  muscles  from  already  tired  nerve 
centers. 

On  the  economic  side,  too,  overtime  work,  like  all  over- 
work, results  in  deteriorated  quantity  and  quality  of  output. 
In  the  long  run,  the  enlightened  employer  is  obliged  to  con- 
clude that  overtime  does  not  pay.  To  this  day,  "spoiled 
work"  is  as  marked  a  result  of  overtime  as  it  was  of  the  late 
working  hours  famous  in  the  first  English  struggles  for 
legislation.* 

Such  an  occupation  as  dressmaking  illustrates  the  de- 
terioration due  to  overtime  work.     Here  the  caprice  and  in- 

*  See  Part  1 1  of  this  volume,  pp.  433-440. 
176 


REGULARITY    OF    EMPLOYMENT 

considerateness  of  customers  have  been  in  large  part  re- 
sponsible for  the  universally  outrageous  duration  of  over- 
time, which  is  common  in  the  creation  of  women's  wearing 
apparel  in  every  country.  Year  after  year,  the  French  and 
British  factory  inspectors  have  enlarged  on  the  essentially 
wasteful,  uneconomical  character  of  overtime  in  destroying 
the  eificiency  of  the  workers.  After  a  comparatively  short 
period  of  pressure,  output  not  only  becomes  inferior,  but 
progressively  so.  Each  week's  work  bids  fair  to  be  pro- 
gressively poorer  than  that  of  the  previous  week. 

Another  reason  why  output  falls  oflF  during  overtime  is 
due  to  the  irregular  habits  which  it  fosters.  It  is  hardly 
surprising  that  workers  should  come  to  work  late  the  next 
morning  after  evening  overtime,  and  that  the  reaction  after 
a  spurt  should  lead  to  "loafing"  and  inferior  production  in 
consequence.* 


2.    OVERTIME  AND  REGULARITY 

So  much  for  the  evident  similarity  of  results,  physical 
and  economic,  between  overtime  and  the  long  day.  We 
turn  next  to  the  distinctive  characteristic  of  overtime,  its 
irregularity  and  the  supposed  necessity  for  longer  working 
hours  at  certain  times  or  seasons  of  the  year.  Indeed,  in  a 
certain  sense,  overtime  is  a  survival  of  the  long  day,  a  stray 
left  over  from  the  time  when  any  legislative  regulation  of 
working  hours  was  considered  intolerable.  First,  men  held 
that  the  working  day  could  not  be  regulated  at  all  without 
financial  disaster.  Then,  when  it  was  shortened,  and  in- 
dustry still  throve,  the  same  kind  of  argument  insisted,  and 
still  insists,  that  the  law  must  allow  concessions,  privileges 
for  certain  occupations  which,  according  to  the  employers, 
can  not  be  compressed  within  the  specified  limit  of  hours. 

The  provision  for  overtime  work  proceeds  on  the  theory 
that  at  certain  times  and  seasons  employers  cannot  manage 
or  meet  their  obligations  under  their  regular  schedule  of 
*See  Part  II,  pp.  440-444. 

12  177 


FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 

hours,  but  must  be  free  to  call  upon  their  employes  for  extra 
work.  This  theory  has  obtained  in  almost  every  industrial 
country  that  has  restricted  the  hours  of  labor  by  law:  the 
regulation  of  overtime  has  been  one  of  the  most  vexed 
chapters. 

In  innumerable  trades  it  has  been  assumed  that  the  de- 
mands of  customers,  reasonable  or  unreasonable,  and  the 
necessities  of  the  season,  avoidable  or  not,  can  be  met  in  no 
other  way  than  by  lengthening  the  day's  work  for  a  longer  or 
shorter  period  of  time. 


3.     EFFORTS  TO  EQUALIZE  SEASONS 

But  to  lengthen  the  day's  work  is  in  fact  not  the  last 
word  on  the  subject.  In  many  industries  the  most  enlight- 
ened employers  have  found  that  overtime  work  is  essentially 
inefficient,  that  excessive  irregularities  in  work  are  as  demor- 
alizing to  business  as  they  are  physically  damaging  to  the 
workers.  It  has  proved  possible  to  replace  overtime,  in  large 
part,  by  spreading  work  more  uniformly  over  the  entire  year, 
instead  of  concentrating  it  into  short  periods  of  intense  over- 
work. Untold  effort  and  money  have  been  spent  to  equalize 
more  nearly  the  week's  and  month's  business.  Thus,  for 
instance,  the  now  prevalent  January  "white  sale"  of  the 
department  stores  was  devised  some  years  ago  by  a  prominent 
New  England  firm,  to  attract  customers  during  the  stagnant 
period  after  the  Christmas  "rush."  It  was  not  written  in 
the  eternal  fitness  of  things  that  the  purchase  of  new  linens 
should  be  associated  with  the  first  month  of  the  year.  But 
such  is  the  psychological  force  of  advertising,  that  the  shop- 
ping public  has  become  educated  up  to  the  January  "white 
sale"  throughout  the  country,  and  now  no  well-conducted 
store  is  without  an  artistic  display  of  damasks,  table  linen, 
bed  linen,  and  women's  white  underwear,  as  soon  as  the  new 
year  opens.  When  the  heavy  spring  trade  starts  later  in  the 
year,  the  sale  of  white  goods  is,  for  the  most  part,  over.  In- 
deed, this  effort  to  equalize  seasons  has  been  carried  to  such 

178 


REGULARITY    OF    EMPLOYMENT 

lengths  that  the  January  "white  sale,"  invented  as  a  stop- 
gap between  seasons,  has  itself  become  a  "rush"  period. 

This  example  is  only  one  of  many  such  efforts  which 
might  be  cited,  it  has  been  found  profitable  by  merchants 
to  make  the  week's  as  well  as  the  month's  business  approxi- 
mately equal.  In  many  cities,  the  custom  of  making  Monday 
a  day  of  special  "bargains"  and  "green  trading  stamps"  has 
likewise  been  implanted  in  the  public  mind,  for  the  sake  of 
attracting  customers  on  a  previously  dull  day,  and  more 
nearly  equalizing  the  business  of  the  week. 

But  the  more  important  and  more  radical  movements  of 
this  order  have  been  carried  out  in  manufacture  rather  than 
in  commerce.  The  most  farsighted  manufacturers  have 
shown  how  work  can  be  more  uniformly  spread  over  the 
entire  year,  instead  of  allowing  it  to  be  crowded  into  short 
"rush"  periods  followed  by  stagnation. 

By  way  of  concrete  illustration,  the  reorganization  of  two 
great  New  England  establishments,  for  the  precise  purpose 
of  more  nearly  equalizing  seasons,  may  be  briefly  described. 

The  first  of  these  is  one  of  the  largest  shoe  factories  in 
the  United  States.  The  shoe  trade  was,  and  in  many  in- 
stances still  is,  a  seasonal  industry.  Manufacturers  wait  for 
the  spring  and  fall  orders,  slack  periods  alternating  with 
seasonal  rushes  of  work.  The  firm  in  question  decided  that 
this  system  was  too  great  a  strain  upon  their  equipment; 
that  it  was  wasteful  and  unnecessary.  They  determined  to 
continue  at  work  during  the  slack  season  by  opening  up  new 
lines,  requiring  customers  to  send  in  their  orders  earlier,  and 
by  similar  devices.  Customers  were  notified  that  in  order 
to  have  orders  filled  they  must  be  received  by  certain  fixed 
dates.  Once  received,  the  order  is  like  a  promissory  note 
which  will  be  met  by  the  manufacturer  at  the  given  time. 
The  dates  for  receiving  and  delivering  orders  are  fixed  in  ro- 
tation, arranged  so  that  each  month's  work  is  approximately 
equal.  The  scheme  has  been  worked  out  in  minutest  detail, 
and  since  it  has  been  put  into  practice  this  establishment  has 
completely  abolished  overtime,  as  well  as  a  slack  season. 

179 


FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 

Uniform,  continuous  work  has  not  only  relieved  the  alterna- 
tions of  idleness  and  overwork;  it  has,  financially,  paid. 

Similar  has  been  the  experience  of  one  of  the  important 
manufacturers  of  jewelry  cases  in  the  United  States.  Case 
and  box  making  is  likewise  a  seasonal  trade.  The  plethora 
of  boxes  needed  for  the  Christmas  trade — fine  jewelry  cases, 
candy  boxes,  boxes  of  innumerable  shapes,  sizes,  and  quali- 
ties— is  usually  not  ordered  by  retailers  until  late  in  the  year. 
A  congestion  of  work  results  for  the  box  makers  in  October 
and  November.  The  manufacturer  of  cases  whom  we  are 
considering  and  who  supplies  a  large  proportion  of  the  fine 
jewelry  cases  used  in  the  East,  decided  likewise,  a  few  years 
ago,  to  equalize  his  year  more  nearly  if  possible.  He,  also, 
reorganized  his  business  for  the  sake  of  obtaining  that  regu- 
larity of  work  which,  once  established,  benefits  employer  and 
customer  as  much  as  employe.  He  has,  indeed,  met  with  so 
successful  a  response  from  his  customers,  that  their  orders 
are  projected  months  in  advance,  being  given  sometimes  as 
early  as  January  for  the  following  Christmas. 


4.  THE  ADAPTATION  OF  CUSTOMERS 

These  examples  of  successful  attempts  to  equalize 
seasons  for  purely  business  reasons  illustrate  also  how  the 
public  adapts  itself  to  changes  of  habit  in  purchasing.  We 
are  too  apt  to  look  upon  custom,  use  and  wont,  what  is,  as 
entirely  static  things,  impervious  to  change.  In  fact,  how- 
ever, habits  are  not  as  tyrannical  or  clod-like  as  they  appear, 
and  in  communities  as  well  as  in  individuals  the  power  of  new 
ideas  works  its  astounding  transformations. 

The  possibility  of  altering  a  well-entrenched  habit  on 
the  part  of  the  public  was  interestingly  illustrated  in  Illinois 
a  few  years  ago,  when  the  passage  of  the  ten-hour  law  for 
women  prohibited  overtime  in  laundries.  Laundries  have 
always  required  from  their  employes  longer  and  more  in- 
jurious overtime  than  perhaps  any  other  industrial  establish- 
ments in  which  women  are  employed.     The  schedule  of 

180 


REGULARITY   OF    EMPLOYMENT 

working  hours  in  laundries  is  very  irregular.  Not  only  in  the 
United  States  but  also  in  Great  Britain  and  in  Germany  the 
long  and  irregular  day's  work  in  laundries  has  been  repeatedly 
investigated  and  found  unmistakably  dangerous  to  health. 
The  scrupulous  cleanliness  and  abundance  of  clean  linen  on 
which  our  generation  prides  itself  has  been  dearly  provided, 
unknown  to  the  wearers. 

Work  in  laundries  usually  begins  late  on  Mondays,  is 
slack  on  Saturdays,  and  on  the  remaining  days  of  the  week 
runs  up  to  a  wholly  indefensible  number  of  hours.  Women 
have  been  found  employed  in  laundries  as  much  as  seventeen 
consecutive  hours.*  The  alleged  necessity  for  this  overwork 
has  been  the  need  of  completing  large  orders  from  res- 
taurants, steamship  companies,  and  barber  shops,  as  well 
as  private  families,  in  the  quickest  possible  time.  When  the 
Illinois  ten-hour  law  for  women  in  factories  and  laundries 
went  into  effect  in  1909,  notices  were  posted  by  certain  large 
steam  laundries  in  various  public  places  announcing  that,  on 
account  of  the  new  law,  they  would  not  be  able  to  deliver 
laundry  work  on  any  Saturday  unless  it  were  received  by 
the  previous  Wednesday  noon.  Previously  linen  had  been 
accepted  as  late  as  Friday  for  delivery  on  the  following  day. 
Such  a  stand  as  the  laundries  assumed  towards  their  cus- 
tomers doubtless  means  that  the  establishments  which  have 
previously  insisted  upon  the  almost  immediate  return  of 
their  linen  will  be  obliged  to  lay  in  a  larger  stock.  Nor  does 
there  appear  to  be  any  legitimate  reason  why  the  difficulty 
should  not  be  met  in  this  way,  rather  than  by  the  indefensible 
overwork  of  thousands  of  girls  and  women  in  the  hot  and 
exhausting  laundry  occupations. 

The  recorded  experience  of  the  British  factory  inspectors 
during  the  past  twenty  years  in  enforcing  the  law  (in  the 
textile  and  other  well-organized  trades  where  overtime  is  pro- 
hibited) shows  unmistakably  how  the  demands  of  customers 
yield  to  the  requirements  of  a  fixed  legal  working  day.     When 

*  Report  of  the  Consumers'  League  of  the  City  of  New  York  for 
the  year  1909,  p.  24.     Published  March,  1910. 

i8i 


FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 


customers  are  obliged  to  place  orders  sufficiently  in  advance 
to  enable  them  to  be  filled  without  overtime  work,  this  habit 
soon  tends  to  become  automatic* 


5.     THE  POLICY  OF  PERSUASION  BY  CONSUMERS 

The  experience  of  the  laundries  shows  not  only  how 
customers  adapt  themselves  to  necessity  and  the  require- 
ments of  a  fixed  rule,  but  how  the  prohibition  of  overtime 
tends  to  create  a  greater  regularity  and  uniformity  of  hours. 
Before  the  passage  of  the  law  of  1909,  the  Illinois  laundry 
owners  had  presumably  not  considered  the  possibility  of 
abolishing  overtime  and  had  certainly  not  attempted  to  re- 
quire a  more  reasonable  margin  of  time  for  delivery. 

Since  the  beginning  of  modern  industry,  a  vicious  circle 
has  tended  to  exist  between  the  customer's  (wholesale  or 
retail)  habit  of  waiting  until  the  last  minute  before  giving 
orders,  and  the  employer's  acceptance  of  orders  at  such  late 
dates,  regardless  of  the  cost  to  his  personnel  and  equipment. 
Either  party  could  forcibly  break  this  circle  if  either  would 
take  a  determined  stand — the  customer  by  giving  orders  in 
time  and  refusing  to  accept  them  unless  finished  in  season; 
the  employer  on  his  side  refusing  to  accept  orders  received 
too  late.  Neither  customers  nor  employers,  however,  are 
apt  to  take  the  initiative  in  this  way  until  really  urgent  need 
arises. 

But  when  an  outside  authority — the  law — representing 
the  sentiment  of  the  whole  community,  limits  the  length  of 
the  workday,  both  employers  and  customers  are  protected — 
the  former  against  unreasonable  requirements  of  their  clien- 
tele, the  latter  against  wearing,  eating,  or  otherwise  consum- 
ing articles  the  manner  of  whose  manufacture  or  sale  they 
condemn. 

It  is  true  that  consumers  have  in  their  own  hands  a 
considerable  power  of  demanding  changes  from  the  manu- 
facturers and  merchants  with  whom  they  deal.     It  is  plainly 

*See  Part  II  of  this  volume,  pp.  407-411;  528-531. 
I  182 


REGULARITY    OF    EMPLOYMENT 

to  the  latter's  advantage  to  meet  the  desires,  even  the  whims 
of  their  patrons;  yet  the  consumer's  power  of  obtaining  what 
commodities  he  desires,  in  an  infinite  variety,  has  been  Httle 
used  to  secure  working  conditions  of  which  he  can  thoroughly 
approve  for  the  workers  by  whom  he  is  clothed,  fed,  and 
otherwise  provided  with  the  material  equipments  of  life. 
Even  when  the  consumer  awakes  to  a  desire  to  mend  condi- 
tions, the  method  of  securing  improvements  from  employers 
as  favors,  is  sharply  differentiated  from  the  method  of  legis- 
lation, which  secures  them  as  rights. 

So,  for  instance,  at  Christmas  time  it  has  long  been  sup- 
posed that  the  employment  of  thousands,  even  hundreds  of 
thousands,  of  young  women  is  unavoidable  each  evening  in 
the  large  cities,  to  wait  upon  a  throng  of  shoppers  and  sight- 
seers. So  firmly  fixed  in  the  public  mind  has  this  belief  been 
that  in  New  York  state,  for  example,  the  law  which  pro- 
tects young  women  between  sixteen  and  twenty-one  years 
in  stores,  from  more  than  sixty  hours'  work  in  one  week, 
is  suspended  during  the  Christmas  "rush,"  when  most 
needed. 

During  the  past  twenty-one  years  an  association  of 
customers  or  consumers  in  New  York  City  has  consecutively 
endeavored  to  persuade  the  merchants  with  whom  they  deal 
to  close  their  establishments  in  the  evenings  during  the  last 
half  of  December,  in  default  of  a  law  prohibiting  Christmas 
overtime.*  This  policy  of  persuasion  has  led  a  growing 
number  of  the  best  establishments  to  close  early,  without 
financial  disaster. f  It  proved  that  the  supposed  necessity 
of  keeping  these  young  women  clerks  at  work  in  the  evening 
after  an  exhausting  day's  work,  is  after  all  not  inherent.  For 
when  customers  are  not  able  to  postpone  their  shopping  for 
gifts  until  a  few  nights  before  Christmas,  they  find  it  possible, 
for  the  most  part,  to  attend  to  it  between  eight  in  the  morning 

*  Reports  of  the  Consumers'  League  of  the  City  of  New  York,  1891 
to  1911. 

t  In  1911,  from  among  40  of  the  best  known  stores  in  New  York  City, 
all  but  14  closed  at  6  or  7  o'clock  in  the  evening.  Only  four  stores  re- 
mained open  more  than  three  nights  before  Christmas. 

183 


FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 


and  six  at  night.  But  the  time  and  effort  required  to  prove 
this  has  been  out  of  proportion  to  the  results  attained;  it 
has  shown  hkewise  that  the  early  closing  movement  to  be 
successful,  must  be  sustained  by  a  specific  law. 


6.     THE  LEGAL  PROHIBITION  OF  OVERTIME 

Hence  the  Consumers'  Leagues,  which  under  a  national 
organization  have  spread  into  17  different  states,  are  devoting 
their  efforts  more  and  more  to  securing  specific  laws  for  the 
protection  of  working  women  and  children.  Justice  and  ex- 
pediency demand  that  a  uniform  rule  shall  protect  the  pro- 
gressive and  check  the  backward  employers  in  stores  and  other 
commercial  establishments  as  well  as  in  manufacture.  Where- 
ever  the  indiscriminately  long  seasonal  employment  of  women 
has  been  forbidden  by  law,  even  the  backward  employers 
have  found  it  possible  to  mend  such  irregularities,  in  some 
degree  if  not  wholly,  by  foresight  and  management.  A 
more  equal  and  uniform  distribution  of  work  throughout 
the  year  has  followed.  This  seems  to  be  the  uniform  ex- 
perience of  countries  whose  industrial  experience  is  recorded 
in  the  reports  of  their  factory  inspectors.  British,  French, 
German  reports  coincide  in  yearly  comments*  that  legisla- 
tion which  fixes  a  "normal  day"  has  been  the  best  incentive 
towards  greater  regularity  of  employment,  planned  in  ad- 
vance to  meet  the  legal  requirement  as  to  hours.  In  1902, 
and  again  in  1903,  the  Committee  of  the  British  Association 
for  the  Advancement  of  Science,  appointed  to  investigate  the 
economic  effect  of  legislation  regulating  women's  labor,  took 
occasion  to  emphasize  the  influence  of  legislation  on  regular- 
ity of  employment,  stating  that  the  British  acts  had  led  to 
spreading  work  more  uniformly  over  the  week,  month,  and 
year,  and  that  without  the  acts  it  "seems  certain"  that  there 
would  have  been  less  uniformity.! 

*See  Part  H  of  this  volume,  pp.  444-463. 

t  British  Association  for  the  Advancement  of  Science,  1902.  Women's 
Labour.  2nd  Report,  pp.  293-295;   1903,  3rd  Report,  pp.  340-341. 

184 


REGULARITY    OF    EMPLOYMENT 

On  the  other  hand,  in  trades  where  overtime  has  been 
tolerated,  the  pressure  towards  long  and  irregular  hours — 
"spurting" — has  been  almost  irresistible.  As  one  of  the 
British  inspectors  somewhat  naively  puts  it: 

"  1  am  afraid  that  foresight  and  arrangement  will  never 
be  exercised  while  the  mischievous  expedient  of  overtime  is 
made  so  easy."* 

It  is  indeed  so  much  easier,  so  much  more  in  line  with  natural 
human  inertia,  simply  to  lengthen  the  workday  by  a  few 
hours,  and  to  keep  the  workers  who  are  on  hand,  rather  than 
to  plan  laboriously  in  advance  to  meet  emergencies,  that 
overtime  takes  on  the  appearance  of  an  absolute  necessity. 

No  industry  illustrates  this  more  clearly  than  the  canning 
trade,  to  whose  quite  unrecognized  physical  hardships  we  have 
drawn  attention  in  a  previous  chapter.  In  few  industries, 
on  the  whole,  have  employers  made  less  consistent  efforts  to 
reduce  overtime.  At  the  same  time  they  are  insisting  to 
legislatures  and  the  public  that  overtime  work  is  an  inherent 
necessity  in  the  canneries. 

In  the  federal  investigation,  as  we  have  seen,  women 
were  found  employed  in  the  canneries  up  to  ninety  hours 
in  the  week,  while  the  canners  maintain  that  without  such 
intolerable  exploitation  their  industry  could  not  exist,  when 
a  seasonal  glut  of  raw  materials  overtakes  them.  But  the 
truth  is  that  there  are  more  than  two  horns  to  this  dilemma. 
For  while  the  canners  are  so  depleting  their  workers,  on  the 
plea  of  unavoidable  necessity,  they  are  at  the  same  time  often 
found  neglecting  the  most  elementary  means  of  meeting 
the  admitted  difficulties  of  their  industry,  and  of  providing 
themselves  with  a  sufficient  number  of  workers  at  times  of 
glut.  In  the  summer  of  1907,  as  was  known  to  the  writer, 
some  women  were  employed  in  one  New  York  cannery  up 
to  eighty-five  hours  in  one  week,  while  side  by  side  with 
them  other  women  were  employed  twenty-five  hours  and  less. 
At  some  canneries  no  devices  more  effective  than  ringing  the 

*  British  Sessional  Papers.     Vol.  XVII,  p.  90.     1893. 
185 


FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 

factory  bell  were  used  to  summon  workers  living  within  hear- 
ing distance,  when  unexpectedly  heavy  pea  deliveries  were 
received  late  in  the  afternoon,  and  workers  who  responded  to 
the  summons  were  kept  working  until  after  midnight — 
sufficient  proof  that  the  canners  have  simply  rested  upon  their 
alleged  "necessity"  for  overtime,  and  have  spent  upon  the 
organization  of  the  working  force  little  of  the  ingenuity  and 
intelligence  which  have  been  devoted  to  the  technique  of 
canning.  It  is  not  credible  that  in  a  trade  where  technical 
mechanical  processes  have  been  bifought  to  such  perfection, 
the  difficulties  of  management  can  not  be  better  solved. 
The  latest  government  investigation  of  canneries  in 
Maryland  and  California,  dwells  upon  this  "entire  absence 
of  working-time  records,  and  almost  uniform  lack  of  records 
of  any  description  for  the  piece-workers."* 

"Without  such  records,"  as  the  report  says,  "it  is 
impossible  for  employers  to  make  any  progress  in  distributing 
the  strain  of  excess  work  over  the  whole  force,  for  there  is 
nothing  but  the  memory  or  personal  interest  of  the  foremen 
to  mark  the  working  time  of  each  employe.     .     .     . 

"It  is  singular  that  employers  who  direct  other  phases 
of  their  business  along  lines  indicated  by  carefully  kept  ac- 
counts should  attempt  to  regulate  the  supply  of  so  large  a 
part  of  their  labor  without  the  help  of  adequate  records. "f 

Indeed,  once  overtime  is  tolerated  on  the  plea  of  neces- 
sity, it  is  almost  impossible  to  draw  the  line  where  necessity 

*  Bulletin  of  the  United  States  Bureau  of  Labor,  No.  96,  Sept.,  1911. 
Hours  and  Earnings  of  Women  Workers  in  Maryland  and  California,  pp. 
399-400. 

t  Interesting  confirmation  of  this  disorganization  of  the  labor  force 
was  given  at  the  public  hearing  on  the  ten-hour  bill  for  women,  at  Annapolis, 
Maryland,  on  February  14,  1912. 

"Mr.  Soper  (counsel  for  the  canners):  No  record  is  kept  of  the  names 
of  these  people,  is  there? 

Mr.  Numsen  (a  canner):    Absolutely  none. 

Mr.  Soper:  If  you  were  to  go  to  the  canners  and  ask  some  of  them 
to  show  you  their  books,  they  cannot  show,  to  save  their  souls,  how  many 
hours  any  particular  person  worked  in  their  factory;  not  because  they  want 
to  conceal  it,  but  because  of  the  exigency  of  the  situation  which  does  not 
permit  of  the  record;  therefore,  nobody  can  tell  exactly  the  amount  of  time 
that  is  put  in  by  any  particular  person."  (Stenographic  record  of  hearing, 
pp.  27  and  40.) 

i86 


REGULARITY    OF    EMPLOYMENT 

begins  and  ends.  The  canners  maintain  that  overtime  is 
unavoidable  on  account  of  the  perishable  nature  of  their  raw 
produce.  But  what  possible  defense  is  the  perishability  of 
fruits  and  vegetables  for  such  a  common  practice  as  the 
employment  of  women  at  night  at  labeling  jars  and  cans? 

The  federal  report  on  canneries  states  that  in  California 
some  of  the  "long  drives," — reaching  a  maximum  of  twelve 
to  fifteen  hours  a  day  or  seventy-two  to  ninety-eight  hours 
in  one  week, — are  worked  by  labelers  and  stampers,  who 
handle  the  product  "after  it  is  canned,  hermetically  sealed, 
cooked,  and  no  longer  perishable."* 

What  justification  is  the  perishability  of  the  products  for 
requiring  overtime  work  at  making  fruit  and  berry  baskets? 
Fruits  and  berries  are  perishable,  but  no  perversity  could  so 
describe  the  baskets.  Yet  in  one  state  at  least  (Delaware) 
the  canners  have  actually  had  enacted  into  law  special  per- 
mission to  work  young  children  of  any  age,  for  any  number 
of  hours,  at  berry  and  fruit  basket  making,  as  well  as  at  the 
technical  processes  of  canning.  Anyone  can  see  that  there 
is  no  shadow  of  excuse  for  such  exploitation.  It  is  due  to 
the  sheer  license  which  flourishes  in  such  employment  as  the 
canneries  and  the  sweated  trades,  where  the  employer  is  free 
to  use  his  employes  to  the  limits  of  their  physical  strength. 

It  is  indeed  true  that  far  greater  difficulties  attend  a 
regular  schedule  of  hours  in  the  canneries  than  in  other 
factories.  Once  a  glut  of  produce  reaches  the  canneries  it 
must  be  used  at  once,  within  a  very  short  period.  Experts 
allow  five  to  twenty-four  hours  for  holding  peas  before 
canning,  about  twenty-four  hours  for  beans,  and  so  on,t 
though  the  possibilities  of  cold  storage  have  not  yet  been  ex- 
plored. The  canners  cannot  stay  the  hand  of  Nature  or 
prevent  the  sudden  ripening  of  crops.  But  they  can  learn 
and  provide  in  advance  for  these  alleged  "emergencies"  to 
an  extent  quite  unapproached  at  present  in  most  states. 

*  Bulletin  of  the  United  States  Bureau  of  Labor,  No.  96,  p.  395. 
t  Annual  Report  of  the  Bureau  of  Factory  Inspection.    New  York 
State  Department  of  Labor,  1908,  pp.  393,  394. 

187 


FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 

It  was  on  this  ground  that  the  Supreme  Court  of  Massa- 
chusetts, a  few  years  ago,  refused  to  accept  the  plea  of  neces- 
sity for  violation  of  the  Sunday  law  by  the  owner  of  cran- 
berry bogs  in  Plymouth  County.*  The  court's  decision  is 
so  clear  and  goes  so  directly  to  the  root  of  the  difficulties 
in  limiting  the  day's  work  as  well  as  in  enforcing  the  Sunday 
rest  that  it  should,  at  least  in  part,  be  quoted. 

The  owner  of  the  bogs  contended  that  he  could  not 
harvest  his  crop  without  working  on  Sunday;  that  Sunday 
work  was  not  unlawful,  if  it  was  a  matter  of  necessity;  and 
that  he  was  justified  in  working  on  Sunday  if,  "owing  to  the 
size  of  the  crop,  the  difficulty  of  procuring  or  housing  labor, 
the  prospect  of  frost,  or  the  danger  of  the  fruit  getting  over- 
ripe and  other  circumstances,  he  had  reason  to  believe  that 
the  crop  might  be  injured  or  lost  if  he  did  not  gather  it  on 
the  Lord's  Day." 

On  cross  examination  in  the  lower  court,  it  was  shown 
that  if  the  employer  had  procured  enough  men — only  one- 
sixth  more — "  he  could  have  done  the  same  work  in  six  days 
that  he  was  doing  in  seven."  It  was  also  shown  that  while 
the  crop  was  three  times  greater  than  it  had  ever  been  before, 
the  owner  knew  at  the  end  of  July  that  he  should  probably 
have  such  a  crop  and  that  he  should  have  to  employ  a  great 
many  more  men  to  take  care  of  it  in  September.  It  was 
shown  that  his  employes  lived  in  shanties  owned  by  him, 
that  he  could  not  accommodate  any  more  men,  and  had  not 
made  any  effort  to  do  so.  He  began  to  employ  between 
three  and  four  hundred  men  towards  the  middle  of  September. 

The  judge  in  the  lower  court  instructed  the  jury  that 
the  employment  of  these  men  on  Sunday  was  not,  under  the 
circumstances,  "work  of  necessity  within  the  meaning  of  the 
statute."  In  upholding  the  decision  of  the  lower  court, 
the  Supreme  Court  of  Massachusetts  further  emphasized  the 
fact  that  this  work  was  not  one  of  necessity,  and  refused 
to  consider  as  emergencies,  facts  which  might  have  been 
provided  for  in  advance. 

*  Commonwealth  v.  Edwin  M.  White.     190  Mass.  578. 


REGULARITY   OF    EMPLOYMENT 

"Without  going  over  the  evidence  in  detail,"  said  the 
court,  "it  is  sufficient  to  say  that  here  there  was  no  extra- 
ordinary, sudden  and  unexpected  emergency.  The  crop  was 
large,  it  is  true,  but  that  it  was  likely  to  be  large  had  been 
known  for  weeks.  The  weather  was  only  what  might  have 
been  expected.  The  substance  of  the  testimony  was  simply 
that  in  gathering  the  crop  it  was  somewhat  less  expensive 
and  more  convenient  to  work  seven  days  in  the  week  rather 
than  six.  That  is  not  enough.  Such  testimony  falls  far 
short  of  showing  'necessity'  within  the  meaning  of  the 
statute." 

After  all,  these  so-called  "emergencies"  in  the  canneries 
are  essentially  the  same  (although  of  far  higher  degree)  as 
those  which  may  arise  in  all  businesses.  With  the  fickleness 
of  modern  fashions,  and  their  extraordinarily  sudden  changes, 
the  market  for  most  commodities  is  precarious.  All  the 
articles  of  men's  as  well  as  women's  clothing — garments,  hat- 
wear,  foot-wear,  ornaments,  jewelry,  the  furniture  of  our 
houses,  the  service  upon  our  tables,  sports  (like  bicycling,  a 
few  years  ago,  and  motoring  today),  the  very  songs  of  the 
music  halls,  echoing  in  the  streets  and  in  the  innumerable 
musical  instruments  whose  manufacture  develops  from  year 
to  year — all  these  things  are  subject  to  changes  in  fashion 
more  violent  than  a  former  generation  could  dream  of. 
Articles  in  demand  in  January  are  out-of-date  by  June. 
Last  year's  models  are  antiquated.  The  whirligig  of  time 
never  before  brought  such  revenges.  And  in  consequence 
all  these  commodities  are  practically  "seasonal,"  in  the 
sense  that  they  are  of  value  at  a  given  moment  or  season, 
like  fruits,  berries,  and  vegetables  ripe  in  field  or  orchard. 
And  like  the  fruits,  too,  after  their  moments  of  prime,  they 
are  useless,  over-ripe. 

Are  we  then  driven  to  conclude  that  all  these  manu- 
factures must  have  special  concessions  and  privileges  of 
overtime  allowed  by  law,  such  as  the  canners  maintain  that 
they  must  have?  No.  In  this  country  we  have,  with  single 
exceptions,  recorded  in  our  legislation  (and  are  now  facing 
the  problem  of  enforcing)  our  contention  that,  so  far  as 

189 


FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 

working  women  and  children  are  affected,  the  seasonal 
necessities  must  be  provided  for  by  good  management  within 
reasonable  working  hours;  that,  in  a  word,  production  must 
be  limited  to  conserve  the  workers'  health  and  welfare,  which 
is  the  health  and  welfare  of  the  nation. 

That  such  a  contention  is  not  unreasonable  the  best 
practice  in  all  industries  tends  to  prove.  The  appeal  is  always 
from  Philip  drunk  to  Philip  sober:  from  the  alleged  impossi- 
bilities to  the  actual  facts.  Even  in  canning,  the  extent  of 
overtime  varies  greatly  in  different  establishments,  and  this 
variation,  as  a  recent  New  York  labor  report  points  out, 

"  is  of  itself  highly  significant.  For  if  one  firm  has  very  little 
overtime  while  another  has  a  great  deal,  .  .  .  the  ques- 
tion naturally  arises  whether  the  overtime  actually  occurring 
in  the  latter  is  not  due  to  the  methods  of  management  of  that 
firm,  rather  than  to  conditions  necessarily  inherent  in  the 
industry. 

"  Positively  it  can  be  said  that  the  very  fact  that  some 
firms  get  along  with  little  or  no  overtime,  seems  to  throw 
upon  those  with  more  overtime  the  burden  of  proving  the 
necessity  for  such  overtime."* 

Overproduction, — the  attempt  of  manufacturers  to  con- 
tract for  more  than  their  equipment  can  legitimately  ac- 
complish,— is  well  known  the  world  over,  and,  as  a  policy, 
defeats  its  own  ends.  It  is  like  unintelligent  farming,  which 
tries  to  get  from  the  soil  more  than  it  can  bear,  and  leaves  it 
impoverished  after  too  abundant  bearing.  The  soil,  in  time, 
can  be  revivified,  if  nourished  and  allowed  to  lie  fallow.  But 
after  over-production,  what  working  people  can  afford  to  lie 
fallow,  even  were  the  revival  of  their  powers  thereby  assured? 
As  the  British  factory  inspector,  already  quoted,  intelligently 
remarks: 

"  There  will  always  be  some  people  who  do  not  know  how 
to  refuse  orders,  however  little  they  may  be  prepared  to 
execute  them,  and  who  expect  their  work  people  to  help 
them  out  of  the  difficulty  by  working  excessive  hours." 

*  Annual  Report  of  the  Bureau  of  Factory  Inspection.  New  York 
State  Department  of  Labor,  1908,  p.  363 

190 


REGULARITY    OF    EMPLOYMENT 

It  is  precisely  to  save  workingwomen  from  the  dilemma 
of  either  working  such  excessive  hours,  or  of  suffering  dis- 
missal, that  the  police  power  of  states  has  interfered  with 
"private"  businesses  and  has  sanctioned  legislation  which 
regulates  the  length  of  the  workday.  That  legislation  is 
still  most  defective  in  tacitly  or  specifically  allowing  overtime. 

Our  conclusion  would,  therefore,  be  that  the  alleged 
necessity  for  overtime,  and  the  consequent  irregularity  of 
work,  is  not  an  inherent  necessity.  If  the  testimony  of  ex- 
perience counts  for  anything,  it  goes  to  prove  that  in  fields 
where  overtime  and  irregularity  were  long  thought  indis- 
pensable, a  better  organization  has  spread  work  more  uni- 
formly through  the  year,  and  has  in  large  part  done  away  with 
overtime.  It  shows  also  that  the  caprice  of  customers,  to 
which  the  necessity  for  overtime  is  often  ascribed,  can  also 
be  regulated  to  a  degree  as  yet  unapproached  in  many  in- 
dustries. Finally,  both  for  customers  and  employers,  the 
best  incentive  to  regularity  has  been  the  legal  regulation  of 
working  hours — a  regulation  which  is  most  effective  where  it 
is  most  specific  and  exact. 


IQI 


VII 

THE  NEW  SCIENCE  OF  MANAGEMENT:   ITS  RELA- 
TION TO  HUMAN  ENERGIES 

IN  the  preceding  chapter,  the  detailed  planning  of  output 
in  advance  of  performance,  in  two  progressive  New 
England  establishments,  was  related  to  point  out  the 
permanence  of  employment  and  avoidance  of  overtime  there- 
by effected.* 

These  results  or,  more  truly,  by-products  were  achieved 
by  means  of  the  new  system  which,  under  the  name  of  scien- 
tific management,  industrial  efficiency,  and  the  like,  is  slowly 
spreading  through  the  world.  We  have  already  touched  in 
passing  upon  several  incidents  of  this  new  order,  such  as  the 
increased  use  of  the  stop-watch  in  gauging  men's  efficiencies. 
Abbe's  studies  of  individual  working  capacity  also  tended  in 
the  direction  of  scientific  management.  But  the  system  it- 
self is  something  immensely  larger  than  any  of  the  factors 
which  compose  it.  It  is  a  philosophy,  not  a  new  routine;  or 
more  exactly,  it  is  a  new  synthesis  of  many  elements  pre- 
viously tested  and  untested.  Its  results  have  intoxicated 
the  imagination.  "  I  cannot  prophesy  the  end,  there  is  no 
end.  ...  1  am  learning  my  trades  all  over  again,"  testi- 
fied a  prominent  contractor  in  regard  to  the  system,  before 
the  Interstate  Commerce  Commission.!  Scientific  manage- 
ment is  said  to  differ  from  the  ordinary  systems  of  produc- 
tion "much  as  production  by  machinery  differs  from  pro- 
duction by  hand;  and  the  revolution  .  .  .  which  must 
result  from  the  introduction  of  scientific  management  is  com- 

*  See  pages  178-179. 

t  Brandeis,  Louis  D.:  Before  the  Interstate  Commerce  Commission, 
Docket  No.  3400.  Brief  on  behalf  of  the  Tratific  Committee  of  Commercial 
Organizations  of  Atlantic  Seaboard,  1911,  pp.  21  and  33. 

192 


THE    NEW   SCIENCE   OF   MANAGEMENT 

parable  only  to  that  involved  in  the  transition  from  hand  to 
machine  production." 

These  are  prodigious  assertions  seriously  made.  Of  the 
philosophy  and  practice  which  underlie  them  we  can  con- 
sider here  only  the  most  distinctive  notes,  which  are  most 
closely  allied  to  the  subjects  which  we  have  treated  up  to 
this  point. 


1.     DIFFERENCES  BETWEEN   ORDINARY   SPEEDING-UP  AND 
THE  NEW  SYSTEM 

Some  concrete  examples  of  increased  efficiency  under 
scientific  management  are  as  follows: 

"  (a)  When  applied  to  the  simple  operation  of  load- 
ing by  hand  a  railroad  car  with  pig  iron,  the  performance 
of  the  individual  worker  increased  from  12^  to  47  tons 
a  day. 

"  (b)  When  applied  to  shoveling  coal,  it  doubled 
or  trebled  the  performance  of  the  shoveler. 

"  (c)  When  applied  to  machine  shop  work,  it  de- 
veloped in  certain  operations  increases  in  production, 
ranging  from  400  to  1800  per  cent. 

"  (d)  When  applied  to  bricklaying,  the  day's  ac- 
complishment rose  from  1000  to  2700  bricks.  (Gilbreth: 
Record,  p.  3410.) 

"  (e)  When  applied  in  the  manufacture  of  ma- 
chinery, 75  men  in  the  machine  shop  with  20  in  the 
planning  department  do  two  to  three  times  as  much 
work  as  105  men  in  the  machine  shop  did  under  the  old 
methods.     (Hathaway:   Record,  p.  3059.) 

"  (f)  When  applied  in  the  manufacture  of  cotton 
goods,  it  increased  the  output  100  per  cent.  (Scheel: 
Record,  p.  3377.)"* 

"One  of  the  folders  on  light  work  (in  a  cloth  finishing 
establishment),  a  wonderfully  skilful  young  woman,  who  had 
folded  155  pieces  a  day  before,  now  folded  887. "f 

*  Brandeis,  op.  cit.,  pp.  38-39. 

t  See  Scientific  Management  as  Applied  to  Women's  Work,  in  Clark, 
S.  A.,  and  Wyatt,  Edith:  Making  Both  Ends  Meet,  p.  242.  New  York, 
The  Macmiilan  Co.,  1911. 

13  193 


FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 

The  question  at  once  arises:  How  do  these  extraordinary 
increases  of  output  differ  from  the  ordinary  speeding  up  and 
pace-making  which  we  have  seen  to  be  common  in  industry, 
and  prime  factors  in  its  overstrain?  It  is  entirely  natural 
that,  at  first  sight,  the  almost  incredible  heightening  of  hu- 
man capacity  which  scientific  management  achieves  should 
be  viewed  with  extreme  suspicion.  Instinctively  we  ask  how 
this  is  accomplished,  and  what  are  its  effects  upon  the  workers. 

In  both  ordinary  management  and  under  the  new  system, 
it  is  the  stimulus  of  reward  which  calls  forth  the  extra  exer- 
tions of  the  workers.  Indeed,  scientific  management  has 
evolved  stimuli  of  far  greater  psychological  power  than  any 
known  before,  in  its  finely  adjusted  rates  and  proportions  of 

pay- 
But  the  diversified  pay  systems  are  merely  subordin- 
ate mechanisms.  Scientific  management  differs  from  other 
systems  not  in  degree,  but  in  kind.  Ordinary  management 
leaves  the  workers  in  any  industry  to  learn  and  pursue  their 
trades  by  imitation  from  their  fellows,  by  tradition  and  the 
rule  of  thumb.  Scientific  management  assumes  the  responsi- 
bility of  teaching  the  workman  a  predetermined  task  and 
keeping  him  adequately  provided  to  accomplish  this  task. 

In  this  apparently  simple  assumption  lie  the  germs  of  a 
wholly  new  system  of  production.  The  responsibilities  as- 
sumed by  scientific  management  involve  a  new  conception  of 
every  business.  It  replaces  empiricism  by  predetermination 
of  results;  the  haphazard  of  the  mechanic  by  the  engineer's 
application  of  scientific  laws.  Each  process  of  work  is  ana- 
lyzed into  its  ultimate  units.  Each  smallest  step  of  the  proc- 
ess is  compared  with  an  ideal  standard  of  performance, 
and  allowance  being  made  for  practical  conditions,  an  at- 
tainable commercial  standard  is  set  for  each  unit  of  work  and 
for  the  whole  work  reassembled  in  its  entirety.* 

This  brief  formula  contains  the  gist  of  a  long  series  of 
complicated  operations.     It  presupposes  the  scientific  selec- 
tion of  workmen  for  their  tasks;  an  analytical  time  study  of 
*  Brandeis,  op.  cit.,  p.  17. 
194 


THE    NEW    SCIENCE    OF    MANAGEMENT 

each  unit  of  work;  records  of  the  accomplishment  of  not  only 
each  individual  but  of  each  machine  and  of  the  material  used ; 
the  standardizing  of  all  tools,  machines,  and  equipment,  and 
similar  contrivances  for  obtaining  in  advance  exact  know- 
ledge of  "what  work  is  to  be  done,  how  it  shall  be  done, 
when  it  shall  be  done,  and  what  it  shall  cost."  Some  con- 
crete examples  will  make  this  clearer. 

Let  us  consider  first  one  which  has  been  most  widely 
quoted  and  which  deals  with  one  of  the  simplest  forms 
of  human  labor, — loading  a  freight  car.  Frederick  W. 
Taylor, — best  known  in  the  scientific  world  as  the  author  of 
the  "Art  of  Cutting  Metals,"  a  profound  work  resulting  from 
twenty-six  years  of  investigation, — is  also  the  originator  of 
the  new  study  of  efficiency.  He  has  given  an  intensely  in- 
teresting account  of  the  first  application  of  the  new  system 
at  the  Bethlehem  Steel  Works.* 

"The  opening  of  the  Spanish  War  found  some  80,000 
tons  of  pig  iron  placed  in  small  piles  in  an  open  field  adjoining 
the  works.  Prices  for  pig  iron  had  been  so  low  that  it  could 
not  be  sold  at  a  profit,  and  it  therefore  had  been  stored. 
With  the  opening  of  the  Spanish  War,  the  price  of  pig  iron 
rose,  and  this  large  accumulation  of  iron  was  sold.  This  gave 
us  a  good  opportunity  to  show  the  workmen,  as  well  as  the 
owners  and  managers  of  the  works,  on  a  fairly  large  scale  the 
advantages  of  task  work  over  the  old-fashioned  day  work  and 
piece  work,  in  doing  a  very  elementary  class  of  work. 

"The  Bethlehem  Steel  Company  had  had  five  blast 
furnaces  the  product  of  which  had  been  handled  by  a  pig- 
iron  gang  for  many  years.  This  gang,  at  this  time,  consisted 
of  about  75  men.  They  were  good,  average  pig-iron  handlers, 
were  under  an  excellent  foreman  who  himself  had  been  a  pig- 
iron  handler,  and  the  work  was  done,  on  the  whole,  about  as 
fast  and  as  cheaply  as  it  was  anywhere  else  at  that  time. 

"A  railroad  switch  was  run  out  into  the  field,  right 
along  the  edge  of  the  piles  of  pig  iron.  An  inclined  plank 
was  placed  against  the  side  of  a  car,  and  each  man  picked  up 
from  his  pile  a  pig  of  iron  weighing  about  92  pounds,  walked 
up  the  inclined  plank  and  dropped  it  on  the  end  of  the  car. 

*  Taylor,  Frederick  W.:  Principles  of  Scientific  Management,  pp. 
41  and  42.     New  York,  Harper  and  Brothers,  1911. 

195 


FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIEN'CY 

"We  found  that  this  gang  were  loading  on  the  average 
about  123^  long  tons  per  man  per  day.  We  were  surprised 
to  find,  after  studying  the  matter,  that  a  first-class  pig-iron 
handler  ought  to  handle  between  47  and  48  long  tons  per  day, 
instead  of  liyi  tons.  This  task  seemed  to  us  so  very  large 
that  we  were  obliged  to  go  over  our  work  several  times  before 
we  were  absolutely  sure  that  we  were  right." 

How,  now,  had  this  result  been  come  at?  Mr.  Taylor 
had  long  sought  to  discover,  and  had  spent  years  in  attempt- 
ing to  measure  "the  tiring  effects  of  heavy  labor"  upon  a 
first-class  man.  His  object  was  to  find  an  exact  mechanical 
measurement  of  daily  work.  He  sought  to  learn  what  frac- 
tion of  a  horse-power  a  man  was  able  to  exert  in  one  day, 
translated  into  foot  pounds  of  work.*  Records  of  previous 
experiments  by  physiologists  and  engineers  were  found  too 
meager  to  base  any  laws  upon.  Accordingly,  in  1881,  while 
Mr.  Taylor  was  employed  in  the  Midvale  Steel  Works,  he 
began  the  series  of  experiments  which  ultimately  yielded  the 
desired  result  and  led  the  way  for  the  system  which  bears  his 
name. 

Two  first-class  laborers  were  selected  and  were  given 
various  tasks.  Each  motion  was  timed  by  a  stop-watch. 
Useless  and  awkward  motions  were  eliminated  or  replaced  by 
correct  movements.  But  no  relation  was  discovered  between 
the  tiring  effects  of  various  kinds  of  heavy  work  and  the  foot 
pounds  of  energy  exerted. 

"On  some  kinds  of  work  the  man  would  be  tired  out 
when  doing  perhaps  not  more  than  one-eighth  of  a  horse- 
power, while  in  others  he  would  be  tired  to  no  greater  extent 
by  doing  half  a  horse-power  of  work.  We  failed,  therefore, 
to  find  any  law  which  was  an  accurate  guide  to  the  maximum 
day's  work  for  a  first-class  workman."! 

It  was  not  until  some  years  later,  after  a  second  and 
third  elaborate  series  of  observations  and  measurements,  that 

*  One  foot-pound  =  the  amount  of  energy  required  to  raise  one  pound 
to  a  height  of  one  foot.     One  horse-power  =  33,000  foot-pounds  per  minute, 
t  layior,  op.  cit.,  p.  55. 

196 


THE    NEW    SCIENCE    OF    MANAGEMENT 

the  law  sought  was  found.  "  And  it  is  so  simple  in  its  nature," 
says  Mr.  Taylor,  "that  it  is  truly  remarkable  that  it  should 
not  have  been  discovered  and  clearly  understood  years 
before."  From  our  physiological  point  of  view,  it  is  pecu- 
liarly interesting  to  find  this  law  of  mechanical  work  simply 
an  extension  and  mathematical  working  out  of  the  basic 
principle  which  has  emerged  from  our  study  of  fatigue: 
That  rest  must  adequately  balance  exertion.  Translated  into 
the  language  of  mechanical  labor,  this  requires  that  a  man 
should  be  under  load  for  only  a  definite  percentage  of  the  day, 
and  must  be  entirely  free  from  load  at  frequent  intervals. 

"  For  example,  when  pig  iron  is  being  handled  (each 
pig  weighing  92  pounds),  a  first-class  workman  can  only 
be  under  load  43  per  cent  of  the  day.  He  must  be  en- 
tirely free  from  load  during  57  per  cent  of  the  day.  And  as 
the  load  becomes  lighter,  the  percentage  of  the  day  under 
which  the  man  can  remain  under  load  increases.  So  that,  if 
the  workman  is  handling  half-pig,  weighing  46  pounds,  he 
can  then  be  under  load  58  per  cent  of  the  day,  and  only  has 
to  rest  during  42  per  cent."* 

The  process  of  adjustment  is  continuous,  and  as  the 
load  grows  lighter  the  workman  can  remain  under  load, 
without  undue  fatigue,  during  a  larger  and  larger  percentage 
of  the  day. 

This  formula  was  obtained  by  Mr.  C.  G.  Earth's  mathe- 
matical studies,  in  which  each  element  of  the  work  was 
graphically  represented  by  plotting  curves,  to  give  a  bird's- 
eye  view  of  the  data  and  records  accumulated. 

But  to  explain  the  formula  thus  evolved,  we  must  revert 
again  to  the  familiar  language  and  conceptions  of  physiology. 
As  Mr.  Taylor  puts  it: 

"Throughout  the  time  that  the  man  is  under  a  heavy 
load,  the  tissues  of  his  arm  muscles  are  in  process  of  degenera- 
tion, and  frequent  periods  of  rest  are  required  in  order  that 
the  blood  may  have  a  chance  to  restore  these  tissues  to  their 
normal  condition."! 

*  Taylor,  op.  cit.,  pp.  57  and  58.  f  Ibid.,  p.  58. 

197 


FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 

No  constant  relation  was  found  between  the  foot  pounds 
of  energy  exerted  and  the  tiring  effect  of  various  kinds  of 
heavy  muscular  work,  because  no  horse-power  whatever  is 
exerted  by  the  man  who  stands  still  under  load,  however 
intense  his  efforts.  His  arm  muscles  are  under  the  same  se- 
vere tension  whether  he  is  moving  or  not,  but  that  tension 
had  not  been  registered. 

Such  were  the  results  of  the  long-continued  observations 
and  studies  which  preceded  the  efficiency  engineer's  estimate 
of  47  long  tons  instead  of  \2}4,  as  the  proper  day's  work  for 
pig-iron  handlers.  His  practical  task  was  now  to  select 
workmen  specially  fitted  for  this  type  of  work;  his  next  to 
train  them  to  accomplish  it.  Mr.  Taylor's  account  of  this 
process  in  relation  to  the  new  management  is  again  of  intense 
interest: 

"Schmidt  started  to  work,  and  all  day  long  and  at 
regular  intervals,  was  told  by  the  man  who  stood  over  him 
with  a  watch,  'Now,  pick  up  a  pig  and  walk.  Now  sit  down 
and  rest.  Now  walk — now  rest,'  etc.  He  worked  when  he 
was  told  to  work,  and  rested  when  he  was  told  to  rest,  and  at 
half  past  five  in  the  afternoon  had  his  47>2  tons  loaded  on  the 
car.  And  he  practically  never  failed  to  work  at  this  pace  and 
do  the  task  that  was  set  him  during  the  three  years  that  the 
writer  was  at  Bethlehem."* 

Gradually  other  men  were  chosen  and  trained  to  handle 
pig  iron  at  the  rate  of  47>^  tons  per  day,  receiving  $1.85  in- 
stead of  the  ruling  rate  of  SI. 15  per  day,  until  all  of  the  pig 
iron  was  handled  at  this  high  rate  and  the  gang  received  60 
per  cent  higher  wages  than  other  workmen  around  them. 

In  this  instance  it  is  perfectly  clear  that  such  an  extra- 
ordinary heightening  of  human  working  capacity  could  not 
possibly  have  resulted  from  the  mere  incentive  of  a  high  wage. 
It  resulted  from  the  application  of  the  laws  of  exact  science 
learned  after  years  of  investigation.  The  high  wage  was 
nothing  more  than  an  inducement  for  the  workman  to  change 

*  Taylor,  op.  cit.,  p.  47. 
198 


THE    NEW    SCIENCE   OF   MANAGEMENT 

his  ordinary  habits  and  become  the  pupil  of  a  new  system. 
As  Mr.  Taylor  rightly  says: 

"  If  Schmidt  had  been  allowed  to  attack  the  pile  of  47 
tons  of  pig  iron  without  the  guidance  or  direction  of  a  man 
who  understood  the  art,  or  science,  of  handling  pig  iron,  in 
his  desire  to  earn  his  high  wages  he  would  probably  have  tired 
himself  out  by  11  or  12  o'clock  in  the  day.  He  would  have 
kept  so  steadily  at  work  that  his  muscles  would  not  have  had 
the  proper  periods  of  rest  absolutely  needed  for  recuperation, 
and  he  would  have  been  completely  exhausted  early  in  the 
day.  By  having  a  man,  however,  who  understood  this  law, 
stand  over  him  and  direct  his  work,  day  after  day,  until  he 
acquired  the  habit  of  resting  at  proper  intervals,  he  was  able 
to  work  at  an  even  gait  all  day  long,  without  unduly  tiring 
himself."* 

Here  we  have  the  system  of  scientific  management  at 
its  best.  It  justifies  the  seemingly  extraordinary  claim  that 
"  the  whole  realm  of  science  is  brought  to  the  aid  of  the  hum- 
blest workman." 

Schmidt  was  the  gainer  in  wages,  the  company  and  the 
community  in  the  amount  of  work  done.  With  workers  of 
finer  intelligence  and  reactions,  the  self-respect  and  exhilara- 
tion which  spring  from  achievement  are  as  great  as  the  in- 
creased wage.  In  this  instance  the  prodigious  increase  in 
working  capacity  was  in  direct  proportion  to  the  physiolog- 
ical potentialities  of  the  workman.  Any  one  can  see  the 
difference  between  the  ordinary  methods  of  "speeding  up" 
and  this  speed  achieved  by  the  efficiency  engineer.  He  also 
sets  up  speed  as  one  of  his  ends.  He  aims  for  speed  not  only 
to  increase  quantity  of  work,  as  with  the  pig-iron  handlers, 
but  regards  it  also  as  a  function  of  quality. f 

Now  just  in  proportion  as  this  function  of  speed  is 
developed,  subject  to  the  capacities  of  the  human  agent,  instead 

*  Taylor,  op.  cit.,  p.  59. 

t"ln  the  last  process  of  stamping  tickets  and  ticketing  (in  a  cloth 
finishing  establishment)  the  girls  work  without  one  superfluous  motion,  with 
a  deftness  very  attractive  to  see;  and  both  here  and  at  book  folding  justified 
the  claim  made  by  Scientific  Management  that  speed  is  a  function  of  quality." 
Clark  and  Wyatt,  op.  cit.,  p.  244. 

199 


FATIGUE   AND    EFFICIENCY 

of  as  a  driver  of  those  capacities,  it  counts  as  a  gain.  Just  so 
soon  as  the  function  of  speed  is  disassociated  from  its  effects 
on  the  worker,  we  revert  to  the  old  system  of  pace-making 
and  speeding. 

Such  a  reversion  was  seen  in  the  case  of  the  Bethlehem 
Steel  Works.  When  the  ownership  of  the  works  passed  into 
the  hands  of  Charles  M.  Schwab  in  1901,  the  efficiency  en- 
gineers were  dismissed.  But  the  machinery  of  their  system 
was  kept.  Bonuses,  premiums,  and  other  inducements  for 
great  exertions  on  the  part  of  the  workers  were  continued,  but 
without  the  spirit  which  had  previously  made  these  contriv- 
ances parts  of  a  larger  system,  as  in  the  case  of  Schmidt,  the 
pig-iron  man.  The  result  was  a  return  to  the  system  of 
"drive,"  such  as  the  world  has  seldom  seen  excelled.*. 

This,  indeed,  is  one  of  the  dangers  of  scientific  manage- 
ment. Unscrupulous  men  can  easily  pervert  it  to  their  own 
uses.  Its  mechanical  features,  such  as  timing  operations  by  a 
stop-watch,  and  the  like,  are  easily  copied,  and  unless  they 
are  correctly  applied  the  workers  can  thereby  be  exploited 
more  relentlessly  than  ever  before. 

But  such  perversions  cannot  fairly  be  charged  against 
the  system  itself.  They  emphasize  the  dangers  of  this  new 
instrument  of  efficiency;  it  may  be  used  as  a  club  as  well  as 
a  crutch.  But  many  invaluable  stimuli  are  dangerous  in  the 
wrong  hands.  If  the  unscrupulous  use  of  scientific  manage- 
ment were  all  that  could  be  charged  against  it,  the  system 
could  defend  itself  easily  enough.  That  more  has  been 
charged  against  it,  it  would  be  idle  to  deny. 

More  serious  is  the  contention  that  the  efficiency  engi- 
neers themselves  have  failed  to  gauge  fairly  the  tax  of  in- 
creased productivity  upon  the  workers,  and  into  the  justice 
of  this  charge  it  behooves  us  to  inquire. 

♦Gantt,  H.  G.:  Work,  Wages  and  Profits,  p.  107.  Published  by  The 
Engineering  Magazine,  New  York,  1910. 


200 


THE   NEW   SCIENCE   OF   MANAGEMENT 

2.     BENEFITS  OF  THE  NEW  SYSTEM 

We  have  seen  that  in  the  case  of  Schmidt,  the  pig-iron 
man,  increased  efficiency  was  attributed  to  the  balance  of 
exertion  by  enforced  rests.  In  machine  work,  obviously, 
many  more  complicated  factors  intervene.  Here  scientific 
management  obtains  its  marvelous  results  not  only  by  teach- 
ing the  worker  the  best  possible  way  of  accomplishing  his 
task  with  the  least  time  and  effort,  but  also  by  removing  all 
possible  external  obstacles.  The  management  has,  in  ad- 
vance, perfected  his  equipment  and  sees  that  it  is  always  in 
perfect  order  and  that  the  worker  is  regularly  supplied  with 
material  in  perfect  order  and  condition. 

in  reorganizing  the  weaving  room  of  a  cotton  mill,  for 
instance,*  the  efficiency  engineer  spent  a  month  in  studying 
and  timing  the  looms  and  the  most  expert  weavers.  He 
learned  exactly  how  much  time  it  was  necessary  for  the  loom 
to  be  stopped  each  day  to  remove  and  replace  the  bobbins, 
etc.,  and  what  proportion  of  time  it  should  actually  be  weav- 
ing, when  all  unnecessary  delays  and  obstacles  were  removed. 
After  starting  the  first  workers  on  their  predetermined  tasks, 
he  found  himself  still  dissatisfied  with  the  condition  of  the 
looms  and  the  way  in  which  the  warps  and  filling  were  sup- 
plied. The  new  system  was  again  delayed  eleven  days  un- 
til all  external  delays  and  obstacles,  which  might  interfere 
with  the  accomplishment  of  the  specified  number  of  picks 
to  be  thrown  by  the  loom,  were  removed.  The  first  workers 
were  then  taught  their  trade  anew  by  the  most  expert  weaver, 
chosen  as  teacher,  with  the  efficiency  engineer  to  superintend 
and  teach  the  teacher. 

Another  striking  example  of  regularizing  work  under 
scientific  management  and  saving  the  workers  from  avoidable 
delay  was  shown  in  the  recent  reorganization  of  the  general 
machine  shops  of  the  government  arsenal  at  Watertown, 
Massachusetts. t    The  most  important  manufactures  in  the 

*  Gantt,  op.  cit.,  pp.  143  ff. 

t  Statement  of  Secretary  of  War  Stimson  in  regard  to  War  Depart- 
ment's Experiments  with  Scientific  Management,  1911. 

20I 


FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 

arsenal  are  seacoast  gun  carriages — large  structures  with 
hundreds  of  parts,  requiring  many  months  for  their  comple- 
tion. Shop  methods  at  the  different  arsenals  were  believed 
to  be  fully  abreast  of  the  best  general  work  in  private  in- 
dustries of  the  same  nature.  Yet  it  was  concluded  that  the 
general  machine  shop  might  be  materially  improved  under 
scientific  management.  One  of  the  chief  aims  has  been  pre- 
cisely to  regulate  "the  flow  of  work  so  that  it  shall  be  even 
and  continuous." 

"An  expert  in  shop  management  was  employed,  and 
under  his  guidance  the  .  .  .  orders  for  manufacture  now 
go  from  the  office  to  the  shops  with  a  much  more  complete 
arrangement  and  supply  than  formerly  of  drawings,  specifica- 
tions, lists  of  parts,  list  of  material,  and  orders  regulating  the 
particular  parts  of  the  structure  to  be  produced     .     .     , 

"There  has  been  installed  a  planning  room,  equipped 
with  personnel  and  appliances  for  the  regular  production  of 
what  might  be  called  the  time  tables  of  the  thousands  of 
pieces  which  must  travel  through  the  various  shops  on  their 
way  from  the  stage  of  raw  material  to  that  of  finished  product, 
without  collisions  or  unnecessary  delays. 

"The  work  of  planning  the  course  of  component  parts 
of  the  structures  to  be  manufactured  through  the  shops  of  the 
arsenal  has  been  systematized,  so  that  this  course  shall  be 
regular  and  orderly,  and  the  work  shall  at  no  time  be  held 
through  the  lack  of  some  component  which  is  not  at  hand 
when  needed;  and  that  no  wasteful  effect  shall  arise  through 
congestion  of  work  at  particular  machines,  or  the  idleness  of 
other  machines  or  workmen,  while  waiting  for  the  assignment 
of  operations  which  should  have  been  planned  for  them  in 
advance." 

Compared  with  such  a  regime,  the  crudity  and  chaos  of 
ordinary  systems  stand  out  in  glaring  contrast.  A  revolu- 
tion has  been  effected;  a  terrible  waste  has  been  checked,  of 
that  capital  which  alone  is  common  and  equal  for  all  mortal 
beings:  of /iw^,  "the  daily  miracle  .  .  .  the  inexplicable 
raw  material  of  everything."  Hitherto  hours,  days,  and 
weeks  of  employment  have  been  habitually  lost  to  the 
workers  through  no  fault  of  their  own,  but  through  the  sheer 

202 


THE    NEW    SCIENCE    OF    MANAGEMENT 

incompetence  of  the  management  in  performing  its  obliga- 
tions and  supplying  materials  and  equipment  fairly.  No 
page  in  industry's  history  is  more  dreary  and  disheartening 
than  the  "time  lost"  by  competent  and  willing  workers, 
waiting,  unpaid,  for  employment  which  might  be  fairly  regu- 
larized. Indeed,  the  daily  delays  and  irregularities  of  work 
involve  more  than  the  direct  loss  of  wage  and  earning  capac- 
ity. They  are  more  subtly  interfused  into  the  day's  work; 
and  the  psychological  gain  which  springs  from  the  elimination 
of  such  daily  annoyance  and  friction  is  undoubtedly  an  im- 
portant factor  in  heightening  working  capacity  under  scien- 
tific management. 

The  new  organization  of  work  has  brought  also  a  new 
emphasis  upon  the  workers'  physical  surroundings.  All 
those  physical  inconveniences  which  waste  human  strength 
and  comfort  and  which  are  common  rather  than  uncommon 
characteristics  of  our  workshops, — such  as  bad  air,  bad  light, 
overcrowding,  dirt,  and  unsanitary  conditions, — are  all  marks 
of  inefficiency  in  the  management.  They  are  intolerable  to 
the  system  which  is  based  essentially  on  the  observation  and 
study  of  cause  and  effect.  Where  the  ordinary  management 
sees  in  the  crudest  so-called  "welfare  work"  (better  light,  air, 
sanitation,  and  comfort)  merely  concessions  to  the  labor 
force,  the  engineer  sees  them  as  indispensable  parts  of  the 
equipment.  They  are  the  mere  commonplaces  of  efficiency, 
without  which  the  accomplishment  of  predetermined  tasks 
cannot  be  expected. 

Under  such  a  system,  as  we  have  seen,  the  increase  in 
production  has  been  stupendous.  Yet  the  picture  has  its 
reverse,  which  may  not  be  ignored.  The  multiplied  task  has 
within  it  real  elements  of  danger,  and  unless  they  are  seen  and 
neutralized  at  the  outset,  the  new  management  may  undo  its 
benefits. 

3.     DANGERS  OF  THE  NEW  SYSTEM 

It  is  clear  that  unless  the  working  hours  are  proportion- 
ately shortened,  or  eased  by  rests,  the  physical  or  nervous 

203 


FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 

hardship  inherent  in  any  process  is  bound  to  be  multiplied 
when  the  task  is  multiplied.  This  was  true  in  the  case  of  the 
weavers  under  scientific  management,  and  is  almost  inevit- 
able in  all  machine  processes.  Take,  for  another  example, 
the  case  of  girls  who  wind  the  bobbins  for  filling,  in  a  cotton 
mill.  They  watch  the  thread  from  18  bobbins,  stopping  and 
replacing  the  bobbins  by  throwing  their  weight  upon  foot 
pedals.  The  girls'  work  was  concentrated  by  providing 
doflfers  to  place  the  bobbins  on  the  warp,  formerly  done  by 
the  girls  themselves.  A  time  study  was  made  and  the  task 
so  increased  that  the  girls  earned  from  S8.00  to  $10.50  a 
week,  in  place  of  their  previous  salary  of  $7.00  to  $7.50.  The 
hours  of  labor  were  not  changed.  It  is  easy  to  see  that  the 
increased  stamping  of  the  pedals,  necessitated  by  the  larger 
task,  was  bound  to  be  more  exhausting  than  before.* 

So,  too,  with  the  girl  spool  tenders.  "In  replacing  the 
bobbins  and  fastening  the  broken  threads  with  a  tier  knot 
the  girls  have  to  stoop  down  almost  to  the  floor."  Naturally, 
then,  the  increased  task  requires  proportionally  more  con- 
tinuous stooping. 

Moreover,  as  we  saw  in  discussing  the  strain  of  industry, 
the  increased  concentration  of  attention  upon  more  limited 
and  intensive  tasks  makes  for  monotony  and  increases  effort. 
This,  it  is  true,  is  counteracted  under  scientific  management 
by  the  worker's  new  interest  in  earning  a  larger  wage,  condi- 
tional upon  the  quality  as  well  as  the  quantity  of  a  given  task. 
Where  the  payment  of  a  bonus,  over  and  above  the  regular 
day-  or  piece-rate,  does  not  lead  to  an  undue  strain  of  effort, 
it  undoubtedly  acts  as  a  new  and  important  psychological 
motive  in  arousing  interest  in  work.  And  this  interest,  in  the 
intricacy  of  our  psychological  powers,  itself  develops  capacity 
and  reduces  effort. 

The  new  order  of  production  is  thus  infinitely  complex 

in  its  effects  upon  working  capacity.     No  offhand  or  general 

statement  can  gauge  its  true  results.     When,  therefore,  the 

efficiency  engineer  presents  to  us  as  complete  answer  the  fact 

*  Clark  and  Wyatt,  op.  cit.,  pp.  256-257. 

204 


THE   NEW   SCIENCE   OF   MANAGEMENT 

that  the  predetermined  task  has  been  accomplished  and  that 
bonuses  have  been  earned  by  foreman  and  workers,  he  does 
not  answer  our  demand  to  learn  the  effect  upon  the  workers. 

Mr.  Gantt,  for  instance,  in  his  interesting  book,  shows  by 
graphic  charts  how  the  working  capacity  of  men  and  girls  in 
a  variety  of  establishments  was  remarkably  increased.  He 
insists  upon  the  benefit  accruing  to  the  workers  under  scien- 
tific management,  not  only  in  efficiency  and  wages,  but  in 
habits  of  industry,  in  self-respect  and  improved  personal 
appearance.  He  states  in  general,  that  this  improvement  is 
more  marked  in  girls  than  in  men,  and  that  under  the  new 
system  the  "girls  invariably  acquire  better  color  and  improve 
in  health." 

But  with  a  system  whose  possibilities  for  harm  as  well  as 
for  good  are  so  striking  as  the  new  efficiency,  we  are  justi- 
fied in  asking  for  more  specific  data.  The  burden  of  proof  is 
upon  the  new  system  to  show  that  its  marvelous  results  have 
been  attained  by  legitimate  means,  as  in  the  case  of  the  care- 
fully observed  pig-iron  handlers,  without  extra  strain  upon 
the  vitality  of  the  workers. 

As  applied  to  women,  scientific  management  is  so  recent 
and  has,  as  yet,  affected  such  a  comparatively  small  number, 
that  it  is  perhaps  unreasonable  to  expect  much  accumulated 
evidence.  An  open-minded  and  painstaking  investigation 
into  the  effects  of  scientific  management  upon  working 
women  was  recently  made  by  Miss  Edith  Wyatt,  and  yielded 
results  more  or  less  inconclusive  as  to  the  effect  on  health. 
In  three  large  establishments  studied,  the  new  management 
seems  to  have  "resulted  fortunately  for  the  health  of  the 
workingwomen  in  some  instances  and  unfortunately  in 
others."  To  this  impartial  observer  "the  best  omen  for  the 
conservation  of  the  health  of  the  women  workers  under 
Scientific  Management  in  the  cotton  mill  was  the  entire 
equity  and  candor  shown  by  the  management  in  facing  situ- 
ations unfavorable  for  the  women  workers'  health,  and  their 
sincere  intention  of  the  best  practicable  readjustments."* 
*  Clark  and  Wyatt,  op.  cit.,  pp.  260  and  266. 
205 


FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 

What  we  need  as  regards  both  men  and  women  (and  the 
only  answer  which  will  allay  the  suspicions  aroused  by  scien- 
tific management)  is  more  knowledge  as  to  the  ultimate 
physical  adjustment  of  the  workers  to  the  heightened  in- 
tensity of  their  tasks. 

This  was  a  subject  which  preoccupied  the  attention  of 
the  man  who  was  in  some  sort  a  forerunner  of  the  efficiency 
engineer — Ernst  Abbe.  He,  too,  was  a  student  of  working 
capacity.  He,  too,  sought  the  optimum  in  which  men  accom- 
plished most  in  the  shortest  space  of  time.  But  he  was  con- 
cerned with  the  effects  of  heightened  intensity  upon  the  de- 
velopment of  his  workers  not  only  as  economic  vessels  and 
units  of  production,  but  as  men  and  citizens. 

Now,  it  is  clearly  self-evident  that  the  efficiency  engineer 
desires  the  permanent  welfare  of  his  employes.  Permanency 
of  the  labor  force  is  a  part  of  efficiency,  since  the  training  of 
employes  represents  a  concrete  investment  of  money,  time, 
and  effort.  Scientific  management  would  brand  as  essentially 
inefficient  such  management  as  that  in  many  department 
stores,  where  the  army  of  employes  shifts  almost  like  an  army 
of  tramps.  In  one  large  and  well  known  department  store 
in  Boston,  for  instance,  during  a  single  year,  from  among 
less  than  1,000  regular  employes,  708  left  after  employment 
averaging  fourteen  weeks.*  Only  279  worked  an  entire  year. 
Such  a  record,  resulting  largely  from  underpay,  is  a  fair  gauge 
of  inefficiency.  The  "system  of  drive"  also,  which  merely 
keeps  replacing  its  workers  as  they  are  used  up  or  worn  out 
by  overwork  and  unrelieved  intensity  of  effort,  is  condemned 
by  the  engineers  as  essentially  inefficient.  They  aim  to  set 
tasks  which  the  workers  may  accomplish  and  "  thrive  under." 
In  comparison  with  this,  the  difference  in  Abbe's  attitude 
towards  his  workers  was  only  a  matter  of  emphasis.  Yet, 
as  we  all  know,  nothing  is  in  the  end  more  potent  or  rev- 
olutionary than  the  intangible  spirit  which  animates  a  new 
system  and  sets  its  tone,  and  of  this  emphasis  upon  the  work- 

*  This  did  not  include  the  temporary  employes  engaged  for  the 
Christmas  season. 

206 


THE    NEW    SCIENCE    OF    MANAGEMENT 

ers  as  independent  social  units,  scientific  management  has 
still  much  to  learn. 

The  practical  difficulties  of  gauging  the  individual  ad- 
justments to  work  are  undoubtedly  huge.  But  it  is  the 
business  of  scientific  management  to  approach  such  prob- 
lems of  employment  in  the  same  spirit  which  has  solved  the 
vexed  problems  of  equipment. 

What  observation  of  the  workers  is  comparable  to  the 
genius  for  both  details  and  underlying  principles  shown  in  the 
maintenance  of  belting,  in  a  railroad  shop  described  by  Mr. 
Harrington  Emerson?  The  care  of  belting  at  one  of  the  main 
shops  had  cost  about  $12,000  a  year,  or  $1,000  each  month. 

"  It  was  so  poorly  installed  and  supervised  that  there  was 
an  average  of  twelve  breakdowns  each  working  day,  each 
involving  more  or  less  disorganization  of  the  plant  in  its  parts 
or  as  a  whole.     .     .     ." 

Scientific  management  then  entered: 

"The  worker  in  actual  charge  of  belts,  a  promoted  day 
laborer,  was  given  standards,  and  took  his  directions  from  a 
special  staff  foreman,  only  one  of  whose  duties  was  knowl- 
edge as  to  belts.  The  foreman  had  received  his  knowledge  and 
ideals  from  the  general  chief  of  staff,  who  had  made  belts  a 
special  study,  and  this  general  chief  of  staff  had  been  inspired 
and  directed  by  a  man  who  had  made  a  nine  years'  special 
study  of  belts  and  who  was  the  greatest  authority  in  the 
world  on  the  subject.  The  belt  foreman  had  as  much  of  this 
knowledge  at  his  call  as  he  could  absorb,  but  he  in  turn  was 
in  immediate  contact  with  each  individual  belt,  with  the 
machine  it  was  on  and  with  the  worker  using  the  machine. 
The  chief  of  staff  learned  as  much  from  the  belt  foreman  as 
the  belt  foreman  learned  from  the  chief  of  staff.  The  belt 
foreman  learned  as  much  from  the  machinists  as  they  learned 
from  him.  The  cost  of  maintaining  belts  fell  from  $1,000  a 
month  to  $300  a  month ;  the  number  of  breakdowns  declined 
from  twelve  each  working  day  to  an  average  of  two  a  day, 
not  one  of  them  serious."* 

*  Emerson,  Harrington:  Efficiency  as  a  Basis  for  Operation  and  Wages, 
p.  61.     Published  by  The  Engineering  Magazine,  New  York,  1909. 

207 


FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 

Here  we  have  the  greatest  authority  in  the  world  sought 
as  consultant  for  the  life  of  belting.  What  first  class  author- 
ity, nay,  what  specialist  at  all,  is  called  in  as  consultant  for 
the  lives  of  mortal  men  and  women  singularly  responsive  and 
singularly  influenced  by  the  new  and  unstudied  forces  re- 
leased by  the  new  system  of  production? 


4.   SCIENTIFIC   MANAGEMENT   AND   COLLECTIVE 
BARGAINING 

The  solution  of  these  problems,  connected  with  the  de- 
termination of  strains  upon  the  workers,  will  probably  be 
contingent  upon  the  solution  of  another,  which  it  is  the  re- 
proach of  scientific  management  to  have  left  so  far  unsolved. 
This  is  its  relation  to  labor  organization;  its  failure  to  enlist 
the  forces  of  a  devotion  as  passionate  as  the  instinct  for  self- 
preservation  itself. 

In  a  recent  valuable  paper  on  "Organized  Labor's 
Attitude  Toward  Industrial  Efficiency,"*  John  R.  Commons 
observes  that  the  conflict  Ijetween  unionism  and  scientific 
management  is  found  at  the  point  where  management  weakens 
the  solidarity  of  the  labor  unions.  Where,  for  instance,  the 
principle  of  individual  bargaining  replaces  collective  bar- 
gaining, the  instinctive  and  reasonable  hostility  of  labor 
arises.  It  is  true,  as  evidence  showed  before  the  Inter- 
state Commerce  Commission,  that  in  a  number  of  important 
establishments,  union  and  non-union  men  have  worked 
peaceably  under  the  new  management.!  Nor  is  there 
any  reason  why  they  should  not  do  so.  The  hostility 
of  labor  which  resents  the  stop-watch  of  the  engineer,  his 
impersonal  and  unfeeling  measurement  of  human  powers  in 
mechanical  and  psychological  terms,  is  bound  to  yield  to  tact 
and  persuasion.     This  is  a  hostility  bred  of  sentiment,  which 

*  The  American  Economic  Review,  Vol.  I,  No.  3.     September,  IQIL 
t  Tabor  Manufacturing  Company  of  Philadelphia;    Canadian  Pacific 
Shops  at  Angus,   Montreal;    Manhattan   Press  of  New  York;     Plimpton 
Press  of  Norwood,   Massachusetts,  and  contract  work  under   Frank  Gil- 
breth  and  others. 

208 


THE   NEW   SCIENCE   OF   MANAGEMENT 

it  is  reasonable  to  suppose  that  time  and  education  may 
gradually  dissipate.  But  the  unionist's  desperate  dread  of 
losing  his  hard-won  collective  bargaining  power  (the  essential 
basis  of  his  solidarity)  can  be  met  only  by  "converting  this 
craving  for  harmony  and  mutual  support,  as  well  as  the  im- 
pulse of  individual  ambition,  into  a  productive  asset."* 

The  material  results  of  industrial  efficiency  are  such  that 
the  new  system  is  inevitably  bound  to  spread  and  aflFect  the 
fortunes  of  a  constantly  growing  number  of  wage-earners, 
men  and  women.  This  is  the  reason  why  its  attitude  towards 
collective  bargaining  is  of  such  vast  consequence  now,  while 
the  relations  between  the  engineers  and  the  unions  are  still 
uncrystallized  and  in  process  of  formation. 

The  unions  themselves  have,  on  the  whole,  failed  as  yet 
to  grasp  the  significance  and  inevitableness  of  the  new  order 
of  production.  They  have  confused  its  outward  forms  and 
economies,  such  as  the  bonuses,  with  the  old  system  of 
"drive."  They  often  resent,  as  indeed  it  is  only  human  at 
first  to  resent,  the  enforced  substitution,  however  desirable, 
of  new  habits  for  old.  They  have  belied  the  system  and  wil- 
fully closed  their  eyes  to  its  marvelous  possibilities;  but  in 
such  opposition  the  forces  of  unionism  are  beating  against  a 
dead  wall.  Scientific  management  is  bound  to  triumph  with 
them  or  despite  them.  Labor  has  thus  before  it  a  unique 
opportunity,  still  largely  unrecognized,  to  strengthen  its 
cause  and  to  gain  for  itself  a  fair  share  in  the  new  benefits  of 
science.  Its  bitter  experience  in  the  past,  especially  in  rela- 
tion to  new  inventions  such  as  the  introduction  of  machinery, 
whose  benefits  capital  and  not  labor  has  so  largely  absorbed, 
explains  in  part  the  opposition  of  labor  to  scientific  manage- 
ment. 

The  forces  of  repression  so  threaten  unionism  on  all 
sides,  perverting  even  industrial  efficiency  itself  to  their  ma- 
lign uses,  that  the  leaders  of  the  new  order,  free  to  realize  its 
wider  implications  and  benefits  to  laborer  as  well  as  to  em- 
ployer, are  under  special  obligations  to  spend  their  best  ef- 
*  Commons,  op.  cit.,  p.  472. 
'4  209 


FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 

fort  upon  this,  doubtless  their  most  difficult  problem.  "Lib- 
erty," said  a  true  lover  of  his  race,  "does  not  fail  those  who 
are  determined  to  have  it":*  and  the  same  is  true  of  justice. 

"The  fundamental  defect,"  as  Professor  Commons  puts 
it,  "is  the  failure  to  investigate  first  the  bargaining  relations 
and  then  to  organize  those  relations  in  such  a  way  that  con- 
flicts of  opinion  and  interest  will  be  furnished  a  channel  for  ex- 
pression and  compromise;  and  then,  last  of  all,  to  work  out 
the  standards  and  records  under  the  direction  of  and  sub- 
ordinate to  this  organization  of  the  bargaining  relations.  1 
do  not  pretend  to  say  how  this  shall  be  done.  It  also  is  a 
matter  for  investigation  in  each  case.  1  only  contend  that 
the  individual  bargain  should  be  eliminated  as  far  as  possible 
and  the  collective  bargain  substituted."! 

So  far  as  concerns  the  legislative  restriction  of  working 
hours  which  our  study  has  led  us  to  advocate,  the  new  effi- 
ciency is  no  obstacle  or  check,  but  rather  an  incentive. 

It  represents  the  progressive  employers  whom  the  state 
benefits  together  with  their  employes,  in  checking  the  less 
efficient  and  unscrupulous  competitors.  Excessive  hours, 
like  overtime  and  under  pay,  are  marks,  often  unrecognized, 
of  inefficiency.  That  scientific  management  itself  has  short- 
ened the  workday  in  fair  proportion  to  the  increased  produc- 
tivity of  its  workers,  no  one  can  justly  maintain.  In  regard 
to  both  hours  and  conditions  the  new  system  has  still  to  share 
its  marvelous  gains  more  equitably  with  labor.  In  the  pres- 
ent status  of  our  industries,  therefore,  where  the  true  eifici- 
ency  is  still  exceptional,  legislation  to  restrict  the  working 
day  is  still  a  cardinal  need. 

*  "Libert^  non  tradisce  i  volenti." — Garibaldi. 
t  Commons,  op.  cit.,  p.  471. 


210 


VIII 
THE  ENFORCEMENT  OF  LABOR  LAWS 

WE  have  now  reached  a  more  technical  aspect  of  our 
subject  which  needs  close  consideration — the  ad- 
ministration of  our  labor  laws.  For  in  the  end  the 
whole  test  and  crux  of  labor  legislation — indeed  its  whole 
excuse  for  being — is  precisely  its  enforceability  and  enforce- 
ment. We  do  not  seek  laws  limiting  the  hours  of  labor  for 
the  sake  of  having  them  on  the  statute  books,  nor  for  any 
academic  purposes  whatever.  We  seek  them  purely  for  the 
sake  of  securing  adequate  control  of  the  length  of  the  work- 
day. What  then  are  the  essential  desiderata  for  enforcement? 
What  assists  and  what  hinders  the  factory  inspectors  in  their 
difficult  office  of  administering  these  statutes,  particularly 
that  statute  which  combats  industrial  fatigue  by  limiting 
the  hours  of  labor?  Our  inquiry  narrows  itself  down  to  this 
specific  question.  We  must  consider  what  kind  of  laws  tend, 
on  the  whole,  to  get  themselves  best  enforced. 

It  is  in  this  connection  that  the  employment  of  women 
at  night  and  in  the  evening  after  the  day's  work  plays  so  im- 
portant a  role.  Overtime  work  may,  in  fact,  be  called  the 
key  to  the  whole  matter  of  regulating  the  hours  of  labor. 
More  than  30  American  states  have  enacted  laws  prohibit- 
ing, in  various  degrees,  the  employment  of  women  more  than 
a  specified  number  of  hours.  But  only  three  states — Massa- 
chusetts, Indiana,  and  Nebraska — have  set  a  legal  closing 
hour  after  which  employment  is  illegal.  Moreover,  many 
states,  as  we  shall  see,  allow  various  exceptions  for  overtime 
which  interfere  gravely  with  the  enforceability  of  their  laws. 
The  difficulties  of  inspection  become  almost  insuperable. 

21  I 


FATIGL'E    AND    EFFICIENCY 

Let  US  first  make  clear  the  distinction  between  the  rigid 
law  which  prohibits  overtime  and  night  work,  and  the  elastic 
law  which  does  not. 


1.     THE  RIGID  LAW:    HISTORICAL  DEVELOPMENT  IN 
MASSACHUSETTS 

The  rigid  or  non-elastic  law  is  one  which  provides  fixed 
boundaries  for  working  hours.  It  protects  women  from  work- 
ing after  a  specified  hour  at  night,  and  more  than  a  given 
number  of  hours  by  the  day  or  week.  The  best  exemplar  of 
this  kind  of  law  in  the  United  States  is  the  Massachusetts 
statute  which  prohibits  the  employment  of  women  in  textile 
mills  more  than  ten  hours  in  one  day,  or  more  than  fifty-four 
hours  in  one  week,  or  before  six  o'clock  in  the  morning  or 
after  six  o'clock  in  the  evening. 

A  moment's  thought  will  show  the  advantages  for  en- 
forcement of  laws  thus  rigidly  framed.  The  law  is  final.  Its 
provisions  are  clear  cut.  Employers,  employes,  and  inspec- 
tors know  without  disagreement  or  argument  what  constitutes 
a  violation.  Work  continued  after  the  specified  closing  hour 
is  conclusive  evidence  of  violation.  The  factory  inspector 
can  see  at  a  glance,  without  further  machinery,  whether  or 
not  employes  are  being  illegally  kept  at  work. 

The  Massachusetts  textile  law  has  not  been  hastily 
enacted.  It  is  the  fruit  of  almost  forty  years  of  experience. 
After  two  commissions  of  investigation  in  1866  and  1867,  the 
first  Massachusetts  law  for  adult  women  was  enacted  in  1874. 
From  that  date  to  the  present  day  there  has  been  slow  but 
steady  progress  making  the  law  more  and  more  rigid  and 
definite  in  its  requirements,  as  experience  proved  how  enforce- 
ment was  hindered  by  the  laxness  of  the  earlier  statutes.  It 
is  worth  while  to  trace  this  course  of  legislation  in  Massachu- 
setts, since  the  whole  case  for  an  exact  and  rigid  law  with 
fixed  legal  opening  and  closing  hours,  rests  not  on  any  theory 
but  on  the  direct  evidence  of  experience.  No  arguments 
could  be  more  telling  than  the  fact  that  our  oldest  industrial 

212 


ENFORCEMENT   OF    LABOR    LAWS 

State,  like  England  before  it,  has  had  to  amend  its  laws  deal- 
ing with  the  hours  of  labor  steadily  in  the  direction  of  greater 
rigidity  and  exactness. 

The  first  statute  for  adult  women  enacted  in  Massa- 
chusetts prohibited  their  employment  in  manufacture  more 
than  ten  hours  in  one  day  and  sixty  hours  in  one  week.  But 
this  law  was  inoperative  for  some  years  because  a  fine  was 
prescribed  only  for  its  "wilful"  violation — a  loophole  through 
which  obviously  any  offender  could  easily  escape.  The  law 
of  1874  was  "practically  not  in  operation  until  in  1879  when 
the  word  'wilfully'  was  stricken  out  by  chapter  207  of  that 
year."* 

The  law  of  1874  had  also  allowed  two  other  exemptions 
which  added  greatly  to  the  difficulties  of  enforcement.  This 
was  in  permitting  overtime  after  the  ten-hour  day,  in  order 
to  make  good  any  time  lost  for  repairs  within  the  same  week, 
or  in  order  to  make  one  day  in  the  week  shorter. 

"The  time  devoted  to  starting  and  stopping  machinery 
was  absurdly  prolonged.  Again,  where  a  factory  ran  an 
eleven-hour  day,  each  woman  and  child  was  required  to 
leave  for  half  an  hour  in  each  half  day,  but  her  neighbor  tended 
two  sets  of  machinery  during  her  absence — 'doubling  up' 
this  was  technically  called. "f 

In  order  to  meet  these  evident  defects  in  the  operation 
of  the  law,  various  amendments  were  accordingly  passed. 
In  1880|  the  posting  of  a  notice  was  required,  stating  the 
daily  hours  of  work;  in  1886§  it  was  required  that  the  notices 
should  contain  an  additional  statement  of  time  allowed  to 
stop  and  start  machinery,  and  the  time  given  for  meals. 
Even  this  amendment  proved  too  lax.  In  the  very  next 
year,  1887,  the  law  was  again  amended  |1  to  require  the  post- 

*  Report  of  the  Convention  of  the  International  Association  of  Factory 
inspectors,  1894,  p.  65. 

t  Massachusetts  Labor  Legislation.  S.  S.  Whittlesey.  Supplement 
to  the  Annals  of  the  American  Academy  of  Political  and  Social  Science. 
January,  1901,  p.  13. 

X  Laws  of  1880,  chap.  194.  §  Laws  of  1886,  chap.  90. 

II  Laws  of  1887,  chap.  280. 

213 


FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 

ing  of  the  exact  hours  when  work  began  and  stopped  and  also 
hours  when  meal-time  began  and  ended. 

The  practice  of  lengthening  the  day's  work  by  "doub- 
ling up"  was  also  attacked  in  1887.*  In  factories  where  five 
or  more  women  began  work  at  the  same  time,  it  was  required 
that  meal-time  should  be  given  them  at  the  same  hours, 
vv'ithout  imposing  additional  work  upon  women  who  began 
work  and  had  their  meals  later. 

Another  important  amendment  enacted  in  1887  aimed 
to  correct  another  evasion  of  the  law  which  the  inspectors 
had  found  very  general. 

"The  most  trivial  accident  to  the  machinery  which,  in 
itself,  might  not  have  entailed  an  appreciable  loss  of  time,  had 
again  and  again  been  made  the  pretext  for  much  lengthened 
overtime  employment."! 

This  abuse  was  attacked  by  allowing  overtime  for  repairs 
only  when  stoppage  lasted  over  thirty  minutes,  and  after  a 
full  written  report  had  been  sent  to  the  chief  inspecting 
official.     A  special  fine  was  prescribed  for  false  reporting. 

Such  were  some  of  the  successive  amendments  enacted 
to  assist  the  enforcement  of  the  law  by  making  its  technical 
requirements  more  rigid.  More  important  still  were  suc- 
cessive enactments  cutting  down  the  period  of  hours  within 
which  the  legal  workday  was  allowed  to  fall. 

In  1890|  for  the  first  time  legal  opening  and  closing 
hours  were  set  for  the  day's  work.  This  was  a  step  of  far- 
reaching  importance.  The  absence  of  a  fixed  closing  hour 
had  previously  been  the  most  serious  obstacle  to  the  enforce- 
ment of  the  law.  It  allowed  women  to  be  employed  by  night 
as  well  as  by  day.  Moreover,  it  made  almost  unenforceable 
the  ten  hours'  limitation  of  work.  So  long  as  women  might 
be  employed  until  any  hour  of  the  night  at  will,  it  was  prac- 
tically impossible  for  the  inspectors  to  detect  violations.  Un- 
less they  remained  actually  on  the  premises  they  could  not 

*  Laws  of  1887,  chap.  215.  t  Whittlesey,  op.  cit.,  p.  14. 

J  Laws  of  1890,  chap.  183. 

214 


ENFORCEMENT   OF    LABOR    LAWS 

know  when  work  stopped.  The  law  of  1890,  therefore,  pro- 
vided that  the  ten-hour  workday  must  fall  between  6  a.  m. 
and  10  p.  m.  The  employment  of  women  in  manufacture 
was  prohibited  before  and  after  those  hours. 

Even  this  limit  of  hours,  however,  proved  inadequate 
for  enforcement.  So  long  as  it  was  permissible  to  employ 
women  ten  hours  at  any  time  between  six  o'clock  in  the  morn- 
ing and  ten  o'clock  at  night  (a  period  of  sixteen  hours),  it 
was  still  exceedingly  difficult  to  enforce  the  law  effectually. 

Moreover,  a  practice  grew  up  known  as  "swapping." 
One  manufacturer  would  employ  women  ten  hours  between 
six  o'clock  in  the  morning  and  six  o'clock  in  the  evening,  and 
another  manufacturer  would  employ  them  additional  hours 
up  to  ten  o'clock  at  night.  This,  of  course,  entirely  destroyed 
the  effect  of  the  law.  Hence,  after  many  defeats  and  more 
than  a  dozen  years'  agitation  by  the  trade  unions  and  other 
interested  persons,  the  so-called  "overtime  bill"  was  passed 
in  1907.*  This  provides  that  in  Massachusetts'  greatest 
manufacture,  the  textile  industry,  women  may  not  be  em- 
ployed before  six  o'clock  in  the  morning  nor  after  six  o'clock 
— instead  of  after  ten  o'clock — in  the  evening.  This  rigid 
provision,  which  copies  the  still  more  definite  British  textile 
act,  has  finally  been  successfully  enforced. 

Accompanying  these  successive  efforts  to  cut  down  the 
period  within  which  the  legal  workday  must  fall,  there  have 
been  successive  reductions  of  the  legal  day's  and  week's 
work.  In  1883t  the  ten-hour  day  was  extended  to  women 
employed  in  mechanical  and  mercantile  establishments.  In 
1892J  women's  hours  of  labor  in  manufacturing  and  mechan- 
ical establishments  were  reduced  to  fifty-eight  in  one  week. 
Eight  years  later,  in  1900,  §  the  same  reduction  was  made  for 
women  in  mercantile  establishments,  excepting  that  retail 
stores  were  exempted  from  this  provision  during  December. 
In  1904  the  exemption  was  repealed] |  and  work  was  limited  to 

*  Laws  of  1907,  chap.  267.  t  Laws  of  1883,  chap.  157. 

t  Laws  of  1892,  chap.  357.  §  Laws  of  1900,  chap.  378. 

II  Laws  of  1904,  chap.  397. 

215 


FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 


fifty-eight  hours  a  week  during  the  whole  year.  In  1908*  the 
week's  work  in  manufacturing  and  mechanical  establish- 
ments was  reduced  to  fifty-six  hours. f  Finally,  in  1911,  the 
weekly  allowance  of  hours  was  reduced  to  fifty-four.| 


2.    THE  RIGID  LAW:    HISTORICAL  DEVELOPMENT  IN  GREAT 

BRITAIN 

In  this  consistent  sequence,  extending  through  a  long 
series  of  years,  Massachusetts  has  followed  the  earlier  ex- 
perience of  England.  We  find  there,  extending  over  an  even 
longer  period,  a  similar  movement  towards  shorter  and  more 
rigidly  defined  hours,  in  the  interest  of  enforcement. 

In  England  the  necessity  of  having  fixed  opening  and 
closing  hours  was  recognized  in  the  very  first  effective  statute 
limiting  hours  of  labor.  This  was  the  British  act  of  1833 
which  forbade  the  employment  of  young  persons  under  eigh- 
teen years  in  textile  mills  between  8.30  p.  m.  and  5.30  a.  m., 
or  more  than  twelve  hours  in  any  one  day.  There  were 
other  regulations  for  young  children  which  need  not  be  con- 
sidered here. 

The  British  law  of  1844  was  the  first  statute  in  any 
country  to  limit  the  working  hours  of  adult  women.  It  ex- 
tended to  them  the  provisions  of  the  act  of  1833,  thus  pro- 
viding for  all  women  employed  in  textile  mills  a  maximum 
number  of  working  hours  and  a  period  of  rest  at  night  be- 
tween specified  hours.  From  the  beginnings  of  legislation 
it  was  realized  that  the  effective  enforcement  of  any  limita- 
tion of  hours  by  day  was  dependent  upon  the  establishment 
of  a  fixed  closing  time  at  night. 

The  act  of  1847  reduced  women's  hours  of  labor  in 
textile  mills  to  ten  hours  in  one  day.  But  the  advocates  of 
restriction,  led  by  Lord  Shaftesbury,  were  defeated  in  their 

*  Laws  of  1908,  chap.  645. 

t  Except  that  in  any  establishment  "where  the  employment  is  by 
seasons,"  the  week's  work  may  be  fifty-eight  hours,  if  the  total  number  of 
hours  in  the  year  does  not  exceed  an  average  of  fifty-six  hours  a  week. 

t  Laws  of  1911,  chap.  484 

2l6 


ENFORCEMENT   OF    LABOR    LAWS 

attempt  to  have  work  at  night  prohibited  between  6  p.  m. 
and  6  a.  m.  instead  of  the  original  terminal  hours.  The 
experience  of  the  factory  inspectors  showed  very  early,  what 
was  shown  later  in  Massachusetts,  that  it  was  almost  im- 
possible to  enforce  the  law  effectively,  so  long  as  it  was  per- 
missible to  employ  women  at  any  time  within  a  period  of 
fifteen  hours,  that  is,  between  5.30  a.  m.  and  8  p.  m.*  It 
was  realized  that  the  textile  law  would  be  practically  non- 
enforceable  until  a  so-called  "normal  day"  should  be  estab- 
lished. This  meant  that  the  legal  workday  should  be  re- 
quired to  fall  between  specified  hours  and  within  a  fixed 
period  of  time,  just  equal  in  duration  to  the  legal  workday 
plus  meal  times. 

Accordingly,  in  1850,  further  legislation  remedied  this 
defect  in  the  textile  law.  It  provided  that  women  might  be 
employed  ten  and  one-half  hours  in  the  day,  and  it  provided 
also  that  the  workday  must  fall  in  the  twelve-hour  periods 
between  6  a.  m.  and  6  p.  m.  or  7  a.  m.  and  7  p.  m.,  with  one 
and  one-half  hours  off  for  meals.  Under  this  arrangement 
the  "normal  day"  between  the  fixed  opening  and  closing 
hours  exactly  coincided  with  the  ten  and  one-half  hours  of 
labor  allowed,  plus  meal  hours.  It  also  made  possible  a 
twelve-hour  period  of  rest  at  night. 

Subsequent  acts  have  still  further  reduced  the  length  of 
the  workday  and  have  made  the  British  textile  law  as  nearly 
definite  and  exact  as  is  humanly  possible.  Work  must  fall 
between  6  a.  m.  and  6  p.  m.  or  7  a.  m.  and  7  p.  m.,  with  two 
hours  off  for  meals  on  week  days;  and  on  Saturdays  it  must 
fall  between  six  o'clock  in  the  morning  and  twelve  o'clock 
at  noon,  or  seven  o'clock  in  the  morning  and  one  o'clock  in 
the  afternoon,  with  one  half  hour  off  for  meals.  It  may  not 
begin  or  end  on  the  half  hour. 

*  See  a  similar  complaint  by  the  New  York  Mercantile  Inspector  in 
the  year  1910.  "The  part  of  Section  161  relative  to  the  hours  of  labor 
of  females  from  sixteen  to  twenty-one  years  of  age,  is  one  of  the  most  diffi- 
cult provisions  of  the  law  to  enforce.  .  .  .  The  provision  calling  for 
ten  hours'  work  between  the  hours  of  7  a.  m.  and  10  p.  m.,  allows  a  period 
of  fifteen  hours  per  day  in  which  to  perform  ten  hours'  work."  Report 
of  the  New  York  State  Department  of  Labor,  1910,  p.  132. 

217 


FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 

Of  the  effects  of  these  rigid  provisions  on  both  industry 
and  labor,  one  of  the  foremost  Enghsh  economists  writes 
with  enthusiasm. 

"How  potently,"  says  Mr.  Sidney  Webb,  "the  addi- 
tional freedom  which  the  law  thus  secures,  to  master  as  well 
as  to  man,  has  reacted  on  the  efficiency  of  the  industry  is, 
at  the  opening  of  the  twentieth  century,  one  of  our  proudest 
boasts.  In  spite  of  the  keenest  foreign  competition,  the 
Lancashire  cotton  mill,  in  point  of  technical  efficiency,  still 
leads  the  world,  and  the  Lancashire  cotton  spinner,  once 
in  the  lowest  depths  of  social  degradation,  now  occupies,  as 
regards  the  general  standard  of  life  of  a  whole  trade,  perhaps 
the  foremost  position  among  English  wage-earners."* 

Following  the  first  textile  legislation,  the  acts  were  slowly 
extended  to  take  in  other  industries,  such  as  print  works 
(1845);  bleaching  and  dyeing  (1860);  lace  works  (1861); 
bake  houses  (1863);  earthen  ware,  lucifer  matches,  percus- 
sion caps  and  cartridge  packing,  paper-staining  and  fustian 
cutting  (1864).  Between  1867  and  1907  the  acts  were 
still  further  extended  by  taking  in  many  other  subsidiary 
branches  of  industry  and  the  so-called  "workshops,"  where 
work  is  done  by  hand. 

3.  THE  ELASTIC  LAW:   HISTORICAL  DEVELOPMENT  IN  GREAT 

BRITAIN 

In  all  the  various  so-called  "non-textile"  acts  which 
followed  the  original  textile  legislation,  the  same  general 
principle  was  followed,  providing  for  a  maximum  number  of 
working  hours  by  day,  between  fixed  hours  before  and  after 
which  it  was  illegal  to  employ  any  women,  and  a  period  of 
rest  at  night.  But  the  general  laxness  of  the  non-textile  acts 
and  the  many  exceptions  allowed  have  proved  as  damaging 
to  enforcement  as  the  rigidity  of  the  textile  acts  proved 
helpful. 

The  non-textile  acts  have  nominally  prohibited  night- 

*  Hutchins,  B.  L.,  and  Harrison,  A.:  A  History  of  Factory  Legislation. 
Preface  by  Sidney  Webb,  p.  x.  2nd  Edition  revised.     London,  King,  1911. 

2l8 


ENFORCEMENT   OF    LABOR    LAWS 

work  and  have  provided  for  a  fixed  workday;  but  in  a  large 
number  of  trades  these  restrictions  have  been  deHberately 
brought  to  naught  by  allowing  special  exceptions  up  to  a 
late  hour  of  the  evening. 

Thus,  for  instance,  the  general  act  tor  non-textile  fac- 
tories provides  that  women  may  not  be  employed  therein 
more  than  ten  and  one-half  hours  in  one  day,  and  that  em- 
ployment must  fall  in  the  twelve-hour  periods  between  6,  7, 
or  8  a.  m.  and  6,  7,  or  8  p.  m.,  with  one  and  one-half  hours 
allowed  off  for  meals.  But  in  certain  trades  overtime  is 
allowed  for  a  variety  of  reasons,  such  as  press  of  work  at 
certain  seasons,  or  when  the  material  to  be  manufactured 
may  be  spoiled  by  weather.  In  such  trades  women  may  be 
employed  twelve  hours  in  one  day  and  as  late  as  10  p.  m.; 
that  is,  employment  is  supposed  to  fall  within  the  fourteen- 
hour  periods  between  6,  7,  or  8  a.  m.  and  8,  9,  or  10  p.  m., 
with  two  hours  allowed  off  for  meals. 

The  experience  gained  in  the  enforcement  of  the  textile 
law  was  ignored.  The  laxness,  or  margin  of  supplementary 
hours  allowed  for  evening  overtime  in  the  non-textile  laws, 
has  long  been  not  only  a  hardship  to  the  workers  but  a 
constant  obstacle  to  the  enforcement  of  these  more  lax 
statutes.  The  legal  permission  to  employ  women  until 
ten  o'clock  in  the  evening  has  led  to  uncontrollable  illegal 
employment  after  that  hour.  The  difficulties  of  enforce- 
ment have  been  practically  insuperable.  In  this,  inspectors 
and  all  fair-minded  observers  agree.* 

Gradually,  however,  this  state  of  affairs  has  been  found 
intolerable.  It  has  been  realized  that  evening  overtime 
must  be  curtailed  and  the  closing  hour  must  be  set  earlier, 
if  the  non-textile  acts  are  to  be  made  of  practical  benefit. 
Beginning  with  the  Consolidating  Act  of  1878,  therefore, 
we  find  the  beginnings  of  a  change  in  this  direction.  From 
among  many,  we  may  cite  a  few  examples  of  the  gradual 
stiffening  of  the  non-textile  acts  and  the  restriction  of  over- 
time work. 

*  See  Part  II  of  this  volume,  pp.  464-472. 
219 


FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 

The  act  of  1878  allowed  women  to  be  employed  over- 
time in  non-textile  factories,  as  described  above,  48  days 
during  the  year  and  on  five  days  in  any  week.  In  the  act 
of  1895  such  overtime  work  was  reduced  to  30  times  during 
the  year  and  permitted  on  only  three  days  of  the  week. 

Similar  overtime  employment  has  been  allowed  also  for 
articles  of  "perishable  nature."  This  exception  includes 
such  places  of  employment  as  fruit-preserving  establish- 
ments. In  the  act  of  1878  such  employment  was  allowed 
therein  96  times  during  the  year  and  on  five  days  in  the  week. 
In  1895  such  overtime  was  cut  down  to  60  times  during  the 
year,  and  in  1901  it  was  further  reduced,  being  allowed  only 
50  times  during  the  year,  and  on  not  more  than  three  days 
of  the  week. 

By  a  retrograde  movement  a  special  amendment  had  been 
inserted  into  the  act  of  1891,  exempting  from  all  operation 
of  the  acts,  "the  process  of  cleaning  and  preparing  fruit 
so  far  as  necessary  to  prevent  the  spoiling  of  the  fruit  on 
its  arrival  at  a  factory  or  workshop,  during  the  months  of 
June,  July,  August,  and  September."  This  wholesale  ex- 
emption allowed  women  to  be  employed  unlimited  hours,  by 
day  or  night,  on  certain  processes  in  the  fruit  preserving 
establishments.  Though  the  exemption  was  meant  to  apply 
only  to  "cleaning  and  preparing  fruit  on  arrival,"  its  effect 
was  to  nullify  totally  the  laws  governing  hours  of  labor  in 
those  establishments.  The  legal  permission  to  work  un- 
limited hours  on  certain  processes  led  inevitably  to  the  illegal 
employment  of  women  in  all  processes. 

Of  a  similar  consequence  from  the  exemptions  granted  to 
the  fish-curing  trade,  the  British  Chief  Inspector  of  Factories 
wrote  in  discouragement  in  1901:* 

"Starting  with  an  exemption  for  one  process,  that  of 
'gutting,  salting,  and  packing,'  the  industry  would  seem  to 
have  shaken  itself  gradually  free  from  control,  until  now  we 
find  fish  that  have  been  in  salt  for  several  weeks  dealt  with  as 

*  British  Sessional  Papers.  Vol.  X,  1901.  Report  of  the  Chief 
Inspector  of  Factories  and  Workshops,  pp.  338-339. 

220 


ENFORCEMENT  OF    LABOR    LAWS 

perishable  articles.  Given  plenty  of  time  and  unsuitable 
surroundings,  every  article  of  food  is  to  some  extent  perish- 
able, and  when  a  herring  has  been  kept  in  salt  for  some  weeks 
there  is  no  reason  for  working  on  it  at  night  except  the  reason 
that  the  day  will  bring  other  work,  and  in  this  seems  to  lie 
the  cause  of  much  of  the  late  and  irregular  hours  of  the  fish- 
curing  trade.     .     .     ." 

Under  the  British  law,  however,  the  Home  Secretary  is 
empowered  to  issue  "special  orders,"  extending  or  restricting 
the  overtime  exemptions.  After  twelve  years  of  agitation  by 
the  factory  inspectors  and  others  against  the  abuses  of  over- 
time work  and  the  impossibility  of  enforcing  these  useless 
statutes  in  fruit-preserving  establishments,  a  special  order 
was  issued  by  the  Home  Secretary  in  1907.  This  was  in  line 
with  all  previous  experience,  which  had  proved  that  laws 
governing  the  hours  of  labor  cannot  be  enforced  without  a 
fixed  opening  and  closing  hour.  The  order  prohibited  em- 
ployment of  women  in  fruit-preserving  establishments  be- 
tween 10  p.  m.  and  6  a.  m.  This  still  leaves  a  very  long  work- 
day in  these  establishments,  but  an  effective  step  has  been 
taken  toward  ultimate  protection  of  the  workers  by  the 
prohibition  of  night  work. 

Another  interesting  example  of  the  gradual  tendency  to 
restrict  evening  overtime  work  and  limit  the  workday  more 
strictly  by  an  early  closing  hour  is  shown  in  the  history  of 
British  legislation  regarding  the  laundries.  Before  1895  the 
laundries  had  not  been  subject  to  the  Factory  Acts.  In 
the  act  of  that  year  they  were  included  for  the  first  time, 
but  instead  of  being  governed  by  the  same  hours  of  labor 
as  other  establishments,  a  different  and  unenforceable  set  of 
hours  was  prescribed  for  the  laundries.  No  closing  hour  was 
set,  so  that  the  fourteen-hour  workday  permissible  under  the 
law  might  be  and  was  worked  either  by  day  or  by  night.  It 
was  not  until  a  special  act  was  passed  in  1907  that  women 
employed  in  laundries  obtained  protection  at  all  comparable 
to  that  of  women  in  other  occupations. 

This  law  still  permits  a  very  long  working  day  and  work- 

221 


FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 

ing  week  (sixty-eight  hours),  and  exemptions  of  man\'  kinds 
still  defeat  its  effective  enforcement.  But  a  beginning  has 
been  made  by  providing  that  the  workday  must  end  at  9  p.  m. 

In  their  report  for  1909,  the  women  factory  inspectors 
noted  that  the  number  of  complaints  of  excessive  hours  in 
laundries  was  steadily  declining,  showing  how  the  fixed  and 
earlier  closing  hour  was  facilitating  the  enforcement  of  the 
law.  "  It  may  be  hoped,"  says  the  latest  edition  of  the  stand- 
ard history  of  British  factory  legislation,  "that  the  act  of 
1907  will  be  a  step  towards  the  normal  day  which  the  ex- 
perience of  generations  in  regard  to  other  industries  has 
shown  to  be  in  the  best  interests,  not  only  of  the  workers,  but 
of  the  trades  concerned."* 

A  fourth  employment  (besides  non-textile  factories, 
fruit-preserving  establishments,  and  laundries)  in  which  a 
special  laxity  of  hours  has  been  legal  until  recently,  are  the 
flax  scutch  mills.  In  the  Consolidating  Factory  Act  of  1878 
and  earlier,  these  mills  were  totally  exempted  from  all  re- 
strictions of  hours  by  night  as  well  as  by  day,  provided  that 
no  children  or  young  persons  were  employed  therein,  and 
provided  that  employment  did  not  continue  longer  than  six 
months  in  the  year.  In  1907  this  special  exemption  was 
repealed  and  the  flax  scutch  mills  included  in  the  scope  of 
the  textile  acts,  in  order  to  bring  the  British  laws  into  con- 
formity with  the  terms  of  the  Berne  Convention  of  1906  on 
night  work,  to  which  Great  Britain  had  been  a  party. f 

Thus  the  history  of  the  factory  acts  in  Great  Britain 
shows  as  conclusively  as  in  Massachusetts,  how  the  laws 
limiting  the  workday  have  had  to  be  consistently  made  more 
exact  and  more  rigid,  in  the  interest  of  enforcement.  The 
process  is  still  far  from  complete.  Twenty  years  ago,  Mr. 
Sidney  Webb  pointed  out  the  anomaly  in  differentiating 
textile  from  non-textile  laws.  When  the  textile  factories 
were  first  singled  out  for  regulation,  the  cotton  trade  was 

*  Hutchins  and  Harrison,  op.  cit.,  p.  256. 

t  Bulletin  of  the  International  Labour  Office.  English  Edition.  Vol. 
11.  No.  1.  1907.  Page  38. 

222 


ENFORCEMENT  OF    LABOR    LAWS 

practically  the  only  great  industry  employing  women  and 
children,  and  work  therein  was  far  more  exacting  than  in  any 
other  industrial  employment.  But  with  the  increase  in  the 
number  of  workers  and  intensity  of  work  in  non-textile  em- 
ployments, the  distinction  has  become  purely  arbitrary.  Its 
abandonment  and  the  inclusion  of  non-textile  occupations 
in  the  stricter  statutes  are  only  matters  of  time.  Overtime 
employment  of  all  young  persons  under  eighteen  years  has 
been  prohibited  since  1895.  British  legislation  moves 
"slow,  how  slowly,"  but  the  best  opinion  in  England  holds 
that  "the  overtime  exception  is  doomed." 

4.     ELASTIC  LAWS  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES 
England  is  thus  slowly  emerging  from  a  past  phase  of 
industrial  experience  and  legislation.     Overtime  favors  to 
special    interests   are   going   out.     But    meanwhile,    in   the 
United  States  they  are,  to  some  extent,  coming  in. 

This  refers  particularly  to  one  industry  whose  quite 
unrecognized  physical  hardships  have  been  dwelt  upon  in  a 
previous  chapter.  Six  states  (four  of  them  within  the  year 
1911)  have  enacted  laws  which  limit  women's  hours  of  labor, 
but  in  which  the  canneries  are  totally  exempted.  These 
states  are  California,  Maine,  Michigan,  Ohio,  Utah,  and 
Washington.*  Unlike  the  British  and  Continental  legisla- 
tion, which  at  least  attempts  to  fix  the  amount  and  extent  of 
overtime  allowed  for  perishable  articles,  the  American  laws 
exempt  the  trade  entirely  from  any  restriction  of  hours. 

So,  too,  in  Connecticut,  Louisiana,  and  New  York, 
mercantile  establishments  are  by  statute  exempted  from  all 
restrictions  upon  the  working  hours  of  women  during  the 
Christmas  "rush."t     In  these  cases,  women  are  totally  de- 

*  Similar  action  has  been  taken  in  1912  by  Maryland,  New  Jersey,  and 
New  York. 

t  In  Connecticut  between  December  17th  and  25th  (provided  employer 
gives  seven  holidays  with  pay);  in  Louisiana  during  twenty  days  before 
Christmas;  in  New  York  between  December  18th  and  24th,  applying  to 
girls  between  sixteen  and  twenty-one  years.  Similar  exceptions  previously 
existing  in  Massachusetts  and  Oregon  were  repealed,  respectively,  in  1904 
and  1909.     A  similar  exemption  was  enacted  in  New  Jersey  in  1912. 

223 


FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 

prived  of  protection  when  it  is  most  urgently  needed.  But 
we  need  not  here  dwell  at  length  upon  such  total  exemptions, 
since  they  do  not  affect  the  enforcement  of  laws,  which  we  are 
now  considering.  In  these  cases  there  is  no  law;  hence  there 
can  be  no  enforcement.  But  these  exemptions  are  the  more 
deplorable  because  they  mark  a  departure  from  previous 
usage  in  America. 

In  the  United  States  the  slower  and  more  cumbrous 
British  method  of  legislating  for  one  industry  at  a  time  has 
been  replaced  by  a  more  reasonable  and  inclusive  system. 
We  have  seen  that  Massachusetts  requires  an  earlier  closing 
hour  in  textile  mills  than  in  any  other  occupation;  but  in  no 
case  has  an  American  law  restricting  women's  hours  of  labor 
been  limited  to  any  one  special  industry.  Laws  governing  the 
hours  of  labor  in  manufacture  have  included  all  manufacture. 
Broadly  speaking,  the  American  usage  has  been  to  include  all 
industries  in  the  laws.  With  the  recent  exception  of  canneries 
and  Christmas  trade,  the  injurious  custom  of  granting  over- 
time to  special  industries  has  not  obtained. 

But  other  exceptions  and  laxities  in  American  laws  have 
been  as  disastrous  for  enforcement  as  the  overtime  provisions 
for  special  trades  abroad.  The  most  flagrant  of  these  is  the 
almost  universal  absence  of  a  fixed  legal  closing  hour,  to 
which  we  have  previously  referred. 

It  is  a  startling  fact  that  only  three  American  states 
(and  only  one  of  them  a  great  manufacturing  state)  have  pro- 
hibited women's  employment  at  night — a  form  of  work  which, 
as  we  shall  see  in  a  subsequent  chapter,  all  the  civilized  na- 
tions of  Europe  have  striven  to  abolish  by  international  treaty. 
Indeed,  the  laws  of  California,  Illinois,  Oregon,  Washington, 
and  Wisconsin  specifically  state  that  work  may  be  so  arranged 
as  to  permit  the  employment  of  women  for  eight  or  ten  hours 
at  any  time  during  the  day  or  night.  Consequently,  some 
years  ago  an  enterprising  mill  owner  in  the  state  of  Wash- 
ington attempted  to  employ  the  same  women  almost  twenty 
consecutive  hours  in  a  mill  (from  noon  on  one  day  to  near 
noon  on  the  next  day,  with  an  intermission  at  midnight).     He 

224 


ENFORCEMENT   OF    LABOR    LAWS 

maintained  that  the  two  periods  of  ten  hours  were  divided 
into  two  days'  labor  by  the  convenient  Hne  of  midnight. 
Fortunately  the  commissioner  of  labor  interpreted  the  law 
otherwise  and  put  a  stop  to  this  particular  form  of  exploita- 
tion. 

But  in  all  those  states  which  limit  women's  employment 
without  fixing  a  closing  hour,  night  work  is  entirely  legal 
and  often  customary.  Moreover,  the  fixed  closing  hour  has 
been  found  indispensable  not  only  to  check  the  employment 
of  women  at  night,  but  to  make  possible  the  limitation  of 
work  by  day.  The  two  things  are  practically  inseparable.* 
Hence  all  those  states  which  fail  to  provide  a  legal  closing 
hour  must  have  maximum  difficulties  in  enforcing  their 
laws. 

Besides  the  absence  of  a  legal  closing  hour,  other  laxities 
in  the  American  laws  help  to  defeat  their  enforcement. 
Thus  eight  statesf  are  satisfied  to  prohibit  more  than  a  fixed 
amount  of  work  during  the  week,  leaving  the  separate  days' 
work  on  various  pretexts  wholly  unrestricted.  If  work  ends 
(or  is  supposed  to  end)  early  on  Saturday  or  on  any  one  day, 
the  other  days  may  be  as  long  as  the  employer  pleases,  pro- 
vided that  the  total  week's  work  does  not  exceed  the  specified 
number  of  hours. 

Such  a  statute  is  obviously  intended  to  afford  to  working 
people  a  half  holiday  on  some  one  day  of  the  week  and  to 
compensate  employers  for  such  a  half  holiday  by  allowing 
employes  to  work  longer  on  other  days.  But  in  practice  the 
intent  of  the  statute  is  easily  evaded.  In  some  New  York 
mercantile  establishments,  for  instance,  the  day's  work  is 
lengthened  by  overtime,  and  instead  of  giving  a  compen- 
sating half  holiday  the  employer  complies  technically  with 

*  Le  Travail  de  Nuit  des  Femmes  dans  I'lndustrie.  Rapports  sur 
son  importance  et  sa  reglementation  legale.  Preface  par  Prof.  Etienne 
Bauer,  p.  viii.    Jena,  Fischer,  1903. 

t  Arizona  (applying  to  laundries  only),  Connecticut,  Georgia,  Maine, 
Minnesota,  New  Hampshire,  Rhode  Island  (all  applying  to  manufacture); 
New  York  (applying  to  mercantile  establishments  for  girls  between  sixteen 
and  twenty-one  years).  In  Louisiana  and  Pennsylvania  the  hours  are 
unrestricted  on  Saturdays  in  mercantile  establishments. 

'5  225 


FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 

the  Statute  by  allowing  employes  to  come  to  work  a  single 
hour  later  in  the  morning  of  one  day! 

Moreover,  how  enforce  such  a  statute?  Any  one  can 
see  how  disastrous  for  enforcement  it  must  be.  The  par- 
ticular value  of  the  rigid  textile  laws  of  Massachusetts  and 
England  is  that  they  are  automatic  and  tend  to  be  more  or 
less  self-enforcing.  Precisely  the  opposite  is  true  of  the 
shifting  schedule  of  hours.  When  an  inspector  fmds  women 
employed  in  the  evening,  he  has  no  means  of  knowing  whether 
the  long  day  will  be  compensated  by  a  shorter  day  later  in 
the  week,  so  that  the  total  week's  work  may  not  exceed  the 
number  of  hours  allowed  by  law. 

"The  claim  is  always  made,"  says  the  New  York  Mer- 
cantile Inspector,  "when  employes  are  found  working  over 
ten  hours  per  day,  that  it  is  for  the  purpose  of  making  a 
shorter  day  of  some  one  day  of  the  week.  This  compels  the 
inspector  to  prove  the  total  number  of  hours  per  week,  and 
makes  it  much  more  diffkult.  ...  To  prove  the  actual 
hours  worked  per  day  or  week  is  almost  impossible  unless 
we  secure  the  aid  of  the  employe.  The  fear  of  losing  their 
employment  has  deterred  many  employes  from  rendering 
assistance."* 

It  is  out  of  the  question  for  the  inspector  to  return  each 
day  to  see  that  a  shorter  compensating  day  is  allowed.  With- 
out an  army  of  inspectors  and  a  degree  of  supervision  such 
as  exists  nowhere  in  the  world,  it  is  impossible  to  enforce  a 
law  made  up  of  exceptions. 

This  is  the  reason  why  such  a  statute  as  the  New  York 
factory  law  is  so  thoroughly  unsatisfactory.  This  law  was 
amended  in  1907,  so  as  to  copy  precisely  the  most  lax  and 
unworkable  portions  of  the  British  non-textile  factory  acts. 
The  New  York  factory  law  sets  no  closing  hour  for  women. f 
Moreover,  it  allows  overtime  after  the  ten-hour  day,  but 
limits  work  to  twelve  hours.    The  law  permits  an  employer  to 

*  Report  of  the  New  York  State  Department  of  Labor,  1910,  p.  132. 

t  The  provision  which  prohibited  employment  of  adult  women  in 
factories  between  9  p.  m.  and  6  a.  m.  was  held  unconstitutional  by  the  New 
York  Court  of  Appeals  in  1907.     People  v.  Williams.     189  N.  Y.  131. 

226 


ENFORCEMENT   OF    LABOR    LAWS 

work  his  women  employes  twelve  hours  a  day  on  five  days 
a  week  regularly  during  the  whole  year;  it  permits  him  to 
work  them  twelve  hours  a  day  on  three  days  of  the  week  if 
he  does  so  "irregularly,"  that  is,  not  as  a  regular  rule. 

Even  further  concessions  to  irregularity  are  made. 
When  it  is  difficult  to  fix  the  weekly  hours  of  labor  in  advance 
"owing  to  the  nature  of  the  work,"  the  law  permits  employers 
to  dispense  with  posting  a  printed  schedule  showing  the  re- 
quired working  hours  for  each  day  of  the  week.  This  posting 
is  a  mechanical  device  which,  as  we  saw  in  discussing  Massa- 
chusetts, has  been  found  indispensable  for  enforcement,  be- 
cause the  presence  of  persons  on  the  premises  at  any  other 
hour  than  those  stated  in  the  printed  schedule  is  prima  facie 
evidence  of  violation.  Precisely  when  this  provision  is  most 
necessary,  when  overtime  is  most  sought  and  the  difficulties 
of  inspection  are  greatest,  the  New  York  law  allows  the  posted 
schedule  of  the  week's  work  to  be  omitted  by  permit  of  the 
commissioner  of  labor. 

When  we  realize  that  the  total  number  of  factory  in- 
spectors in  New  York  state  is  80;  that  they  are  charged  with 
the  inspection  of  all  the  factories  in  the  state  (over  30,000  in 
1910),  all  the  stores,  all  the  tenements  licensed  for  home  work 
or  applying  for  license;  that  they  must  enforce  the  labor  laws 
regarding  the  fencing  of  dangerous  machinery,  the  ventilation 
and  sanitary  condition  of  workrooms,  as  well  as  those  which 
provide  for  the  inspection  of  tunnels,  for  the  payment  of 
wages,  for  the  enforcement  of  the  eight-hour  law  on  public 
works,  all  the  child  labor  laws,  and  others  besides — it  is 
apparent  that  a  law  to  limit  hours  of  labor,  so  full  of  exemp- 
tions, so  little  calculated  to  be  enforceable,  sets  the  inspectors 
a  genuinely  impossible  task,  and  must  remain,  more  or  less, 
a  dead  letter. 

It  is  true  that  in  New  York  state  the  difficulties  of  ad- 
ministration are  greater  than  in  other  states,  on  account  of 
the  larger  field  to  be  covered  and  the  far  greater  number  and 
variety  of  establishments  and  employes.  But  the  conditions 
are  not  essentially  different  in  other  states. 

227 


FATIGUE   AND    EFFICIENCY 

5.     TWO  TESTS  OF  EFFICIENCY 

What  then  is  the  general  state  of  administration  in  the 
United  States?  Can  we  fix  upon  any  general  tests  of  effi- 
ciency? In  so  large  and  complex  a  field  we  are  again  forced 
to  limit  ourselves  to  a  few  definite  points  of  discussion.  From 
among  many  possible  items  we  may  choose  two,  as  fairly 
good  indices  of  intelligence  and  ability  in  administering  the 
laws.  The  first  of  these  is  the  character  of  the  yearly  printed 
report  of  the  state  labor  bureau  or  department;  the  second, 
its  means  of  gauging  the  effect  of  industrial  occupations  on  the 
health  of  the  workers. 

(a)  The  Annual  Report 

To  many  persons  our  first  item  may  not  seem  a  fair 
test  of  efficiency.  The  yearly  printed  report  seems  a  mere 
formality,  a  conventional  requirement,  which  has  resulted 
in  libraries  full  of  dead  statistics  and  verbiage.  But  if  the 
statistics  are  not  dead  nor  the  comments  mere  verbiage! 

In  Great  Britain  and  other  foreign  countries  the  yearly 
report  has  been  found  an  essential  and  effective,  though  in- 
direct, aid  to  administration.  In  the  first  place,  the  report 
is  a  yearly  public  accounting,  a  yearly  focus  or  review,  which 
discloses  the  internal  working  of  the  inspection  department. 
In  a  word:  it  turns  on  the  light.  It  reveals  the  department's 
efficiency  or  inefficiency.  It  acts  as  a  valuable  check  upon 
the  field  work,  since  it  is  based  upon  the  inspector's  daily 
activities.  A  good  report  presupposes  and  indeed  necessi- 
tates an  adequate  system  of  supervision,  daily  reporting,  and 
standardized  record  keeping  by  the  field  inspectors,  and 
where  such  a  system  is  lacking  the  annual  report  reveals 
it  unmistakably. 

Secondly,  the  yearly  report  has  been  found  an  invaluable 
aid  to  enforcement  by  helping  to  form  intelligent  public 
opinion.  We  are  dealing  here  with  a  public  office — the  ac- 
tivity of  public  officials,  peculiarly  dependent  upon  the  ap- 
proval of  the  community  for  effective  work.     In  communities 

228 


ENFORCEMENT   OF    LABOR    LAWS 

where  people  in  general  are  interested  and  alert  as  to  the 
welfare  of  working  people,  the  laws  tend  to  get  enforced  with 
a  minimum  of  friction  and  a  maximum  of  efficiency.  It 
follows  that  publicity  is  one  of  the  important  weapons  of 
efficient  administration.  We  are  not  proposing  that  law  and 
enforcement  should  wait  upon  the  vagaries  of  public  opinion. 
Public  opinion  is  often  unintelligent  and  reactionary,  and  the 
labor  laws  should  be  just  far  enough  in  advance  of  it  to  force 
up  the  standards  of  the  backward  and  unenlightened  em- 
ployers. But  all  that  makes  for  a  wider  general  knowledge 
of  the  facts  at  issue — industrial  conditions,  working  hours, 
work  accidents,  and  the  like — helps  to  form  that  enlightened 
public  opinion  without  which  labor  laws,  in  a  democracy, 
cannot  in  the  long  run  be  enforced. 

Thirdly,  the  yearly  factory  reports  have  been  found  not 
only  efficient  aids  to  the  administration  of  existing  laws,  but 
perhaps  the  most  valuable  means  of  securing  better  laws. 
As  we  have  seen,  successive  factory  laws  have  not  been  based 
upon  theories  or  generalities  but  for  the  most  part  have  fol- 
lowed some  insistent  demand  for  the  correction  of  specific 
abuses.  Abroad,  the  factory  inspectors  have  been  in  a 
position  to  furnish  such  facts  to  legislative  bodies.  They 
have  made  available  a  fund  of  information  gained  from 
official  investigations  and  experiences. 

We  have  seen  that  since  1833,  when  the  first  English 
inspectors  were  appointed  and  were  charged  to  report  on  the 
condition  of  the  workers  and  the  operation  of  the  laws,  a 
more  or  less  continuous  record  of  industrial  history  has  come 
down  to  us.  What  record  of  industrial  conditions  and  of  the 
operation  of  our  factory  laws  do  our  American  factory  reports 
yield,  or  will  they  leave  to  posterity? 

Let  any  student  who  wishes  to  form  an  opinion  on  this 
subject  read  a  year's  files  of  American  factory  reports.  It 
will  not  be  possible  to  read  a  current  year's  file,  for  many  of 
the  states  do  not  publish  current  reports,  although  their 
value  for  remedial  action  depends  upon  the  freshness  and 
genuineness  of  the  information  they  furnish.     By  the  time 

229 


FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 

our  State  factory  reports  have  been  printed,  the  information 
contained  therein  is  often  several  )'ears  old.  For  instance, 
in  1909,  the  latest  available  Illinois  report  was  for  1905.  The 
report  of  the  Massachusetts  state  inspectors  of  health  for  the 
year  ending  November  1,  1908,  was  published  at  the  close 
of  1910.  Eight  states  publish  biennial  reports  and  their 
news  is  inevitably  one  year  late. 

It  is  true  that  these  delays  in  printing  are  not,  in  the 
first  instance,  due  to  the  inspection  force.  The  chief  in- 
spector or  head  of  the  labor  department  shifts  the  blame  for 
the  delay  on  to  the  state  printer.  Yet  this  delay  is  essentially 
an  index  of  the  efficiency  of  the  labor  department,  and  it  has 
been  shown  that  if  sufficient  pressure  is  brought  to  bear,  these 
reports  can  be  issued  in  time.  This  was  illustrated  in  New 
York  state  in  1905,  when  an  efficient  commissioner  of  labor 
determined  that  his  report  should  be  published  at  the  close 
of  the  year  which  it  purported  to  describe.  His  report  and 
recommendations  to  the  legislature  were  accordingly  issued 
on  time,  while  the  tables  and  statistical  portions  of  the  de- 
partment's work  were  necessarily  delayed  until  later.  This 
procedure  has  ever  since  been  followed  in  New  York  state, 
whose  reports  in  substance,  as  well  as  time  of  issuance,  differ 
commendably  from  most  other  publications  of  the  state 
labor  departments. 

The  belated  publication  of  the  American  factory  reports 
obviously  destroys  the  three-fold  function  which,  as  we  have 
pointed  out,  they  should  fulfill:  revealing  the  internal  or- 
ganization of  the  inspection  department,  forming  public 
opinion,  and  furnishing  material  for  constructive  legislation. 

Moreover,  the  contents  of  these  reports  are,  for  the  most 
part,  little  calculated  to  accomplish  these  purposes.  No 
report  is  efficient  which  does  not  tell  at  least  the  following 
elementary  facts  concerning  the  workers: 

(1)  The  number  and  occupations  of  men,  women,  boys, 
and  eirls  found  at  work. 


230 


ENFORCEMENT   OF    LABOR    LAWS 

(2)  The  ages  of  the  minors,  the  issuance  of  "working 
papers,"  and  other  data  relating  specifically  to  the  employ- 
ment of  children. 

(3)  The  times,  places,  and  nature  of  violations  of  the 
law. 

(4)  The  methods  of  dealing  with  such  violations  by 
warnings,  prosecutions,  or  the  like. 

(5)  The  number  and  disposition  of  prosecutions  actually 
brought  to  court,  including  the  amount  of  money  collected 
in  fines  and  penalties. 

(6)  The  nature  of  occupations  deemed  dangerous  to 
health,  the  number  of  workers  found  therein,  and  (as  far  as 
possible)  the  effects  of  the  work. 

All  these  things  must  be  known  in  order  to  gauge  the 
eflFectiveness  of  the  laws,  and  the  points  in  which  they  are 
adequate  or  inadequate.  Yet  few  state  reports  contain  such 
accurate,  specific,  and  current  information.  The  opinions 
of  the  inspectors,  for  instance,  on  the  value  and  workability 
of  their  respective  state  laws  are  almost  totally  lacking. 

Only  a  few  years  ago  a  striking  exhibition  was  given,  not 
alone  of  the  extraordinary  ignorance  of  the  chief  labor  official 
of  a  great  state,  but  also  of  his  open  animus  against  the  labor 
laws  which  he  was  appointed  to  enforce.  The  report  of  the 
Pennsylvania  chief  factory  inspector  for  the  year  1907  ap- 
peared in  1908,  the  year  in  which  the  United  States  Supreme 
Court  rendered  its  famous  decision  in  the  Oregon  ten-hour 
case,  upholding  the  right  of  a  state  to  protect  its  working 
women  by  limiting  their  hours  of  labor.*  Shortly  before 
that  decisive  judgment  was  to  be  handed  down,  the  chief 
factory  inspector  of  Pennsylvania  officially  declared  his  hos- 
tility to  a  similar  Pennsylvania  law,  on  the  ground  that  it 
was,  in  his  opinion,  unconstitutional.  "  1  have  yet  to  find  a 
single  instance,"  he  takes  pains  specifically  to  write,t  "where 
any  court  of  last  resort  has  upheld"  such  a  statute — ignorant 
of  four  earlier  decisions  upholding  the  constitutionality  of 

*  For  a  full  discussion  of  this  decision  see  Chapter  IX,  page  250. 
t  Report  of  the  Pennsylvania  Chief  Factory  Inspector,  1907,  pp.  10  and  11 

231 


FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 

similar  laws  by  the  Supreme  Courts  of  four  other  states, 
Massachusetts,  Nebraska,  Washington,  and  Oregon!  The 
impropriety  of  such  an  official  attack  upon  the  Pennsyl- 
vania law  was  the  more  glaring  because  an  earlier  Pennsyl- 
vania act  limiting  women's  hours  of  labor  had  been  previously 
upheld  in  a  strong  and  illuminating  decision  by  the  Superior 
Court  of  Pennsylvania.* 

Owing  to  conditions  of  which  the  foregoing  is  an  ex- 
treme example  it  has  come  about  at  any  time  of  need  that, 
instead  of  the  responsible  officials,  private  investigation, 
without  proper  powers,  opportunities,  or  privileges  of  ob- 
servation, has  had  to  furnish  facts  and  figures  about  labor 
conditions. 

Thus,  since  the  first  permanent  child  labor  committee 
was  formed  in  New  York  City  in  1903,  the  entire  American 
campaign  against  child  labor  has  been  hampered  by  having 
to  depend  almost  wholly  upon  private  investigation  of  the 
facts,  to  secure  laws  protecting  children  from  premature 
work.  In  state  after  state  private  investigators  have  had 
to  learn  the  extent  of  child  labor,  the  conditions  under  which 
children  have  been  employed,  the  effects  of  premature  work 
upon  health  and  morals  and  industry — all  those  facts  which 
the  official  inspectors  should  have  been  publishing  as  the 
bases  of  legislation.  Not  until  the  first  volume  of  the  federal 
investigation  of  working  women  and  children  was  published 
in  1910,  was  there  any  comprehensive  study  of  the  children 
employed  in  the  cotton  mills.  Moreover,  the  facts  and  sta- 
tistics gathered  by  private  investigation  are  often  considered 
open  to  the  charge  of  personal  bias.  Government  investi- 
gation is  impersonal;  its  reports  carry  greater  weight  because 
they  are  held  to  present  wholly  uncolored  facts, 

*  Commonwealth  v.  Beatty.     15  Pa.  Sup.  Ct.  5,  15. 


232 


ENFORCEMENT   OF    LABOR    LAWS 

(b)  The  Observation  of  Health  in  Industrial  Establish- 
ments 

A  second  almost  universal  failure  in  administering  labor 
laws  concerns  the  observation  of  the  health  of  working  people, 
as  affected  by  their  occupations.  The  whole  justification, 
legal  and  moral,  of  laws  such  as  those  limiting  the  hours  of 
labor,  prohibiting  the  employment  of  women  and  minors  in 
certain  occupations,  providing  sanitary  regulations,  seats  for 
girls  and  women,  and  the  like,  is  their  necessity  for  the  health 
and  welfare  of  the  workers.  Yet  so  elementary  has  been  our 
conception  of  administering  these  health  statutes,  that  we 
have  practically  not  yet  begun  to  test  the  value  of  medical 
inspection  of  work  places.  It  is  true  that  the  labor  laws  have 
not  required  the  appointment  of  physicians  as  inspectors, 
except  in  a  few  instances  which  we  will  next  discuss.  But  the 
lack  of  the  most  rudimentary  observation  of  the  health  of 
the  workers  is  a  legitimate  reproach  to  every  labor  department 
which  makes  any  pretense  of  inspection. 

A  beginning  has  been  made  in  New  York  state  to  cope 
with  the  difficult  problems  affecting  health  in  industrial 
occupations  by  the  appointment  of  one  physician  to  act 
as  inspector.  During  his  first  years  in  office  the  medical 
inspector  has  had  to  specialize  chiefly  on  the  single  subject 
of  ventilation  and  the  obscurer  pollutions  of  the  atmo- 
sphere in  factories  and  stores. 

In  Massachusetts,  too,  an  attempt  has  been  made  to 
provide  medical  observation  of  the  workers.  In  1907  the 
office  of  state  inspector  of  health  was  created  under  the 
Massachusetts  state  board  of  health,  and  15  such  inspectors 
were  appointed.  Besides  other  duties  they  are  required 
to  enforce  various  sanitary  and  hygienic  regulations  in  fac- 
tories, to  inform  themselves  as  to  the  health  of  minors  in 
factories  and  the  prevalence  of  tuberculosis  and  other  dis- 
eases amongst  factory  workers. 

Thanks  to  a  careful  and  detailed  system  of  record  keep- 
ing, the  reports  of  the  Massachusetts  inspectors  of  health, 
together  with  a  previous  investigation  by  the  state  board  of 

233 


FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 

health,  have  given  the  first  official  American  returns  on  many 
unhealthful  processes  of  manufacture.* 

One  of  the  most  important  duties  of  the  Massachusetts 
inspectors  of  health  has  been  to  assist  the  state  board  of 
health  in  enforcing  the  new  and  epoch-making  law  of  1910 
concerning  the  employment  of  minors.  This  provides  for 
the  exclusion  of  minors  under  the  age  of  eighteen  years  from 
any  occupation  or  process  of  manufacture  deemed  by  the 
board  sufficiently  injurious  to  health.  Accordingly,  many 
processes  have  been  studied  with  a  view  to  determining  their 
effects  upon  young  persons.  For  example,  the  manufacture 
of  rubber  goods  was  specially  scrutinized,  and  some  stages  of 
the  work  were  found  unfit  for  minors.  In  rubberized  cloth- 
ing factories,  the  medical  inspectors  found  young  boys  em- 
ployed at  work  which  required  them  to  spend  from  one-third 
to  one-half  of  their  entire  working  time  in  doubled-up  posi- 
tions crawling  underneath  the  "spreader"  machines,  breath- 
ing over-heated  air  vitiated  by  naphtha  fumes.  Their  heads 
were  protected  from  the  heat  of  the  machines  by  planks 
covered  with  asbestos. 

Following  these  and  similar  reports  from  the  inspectors 
of  health,  regarding  the  injurious  nature  of  many  different 
kinds  of  manufacture,  the  state  board  of  health  issued  an 
order  on  July  10,  1911,  declaring  24  different  processes  of 
manufacture  to  be  injurious  to  the  health  of  minors,  within 
the  meaning  of  the  law.  These  processes  involved  exposure 
to  poisonous  or  irritating  dust,  gases,  and  fumes,  and  the 
employment  of  minors  under  eighteen  years  of  age  was 
accordingly  forbidden  therein.     This  included  such  work  as 

*  Memorial  on  Occupational  Diseases  prepared  by  a  Committee 
of  Experts  and  presented  to  the  President  of  the  United  States,  September 
29,  1910.     American  Labor  Legislation  Review,  Jan.,  1911,  p.  137. 

Report  of  the  Massachusetts  State  Board  of  Health  upon  the  Sanitary 
Conditions  of  Factories,  Workshops,  and  other  establishments  where  persons 
are  employed.     1907. 

Report  on  the  Work  of  the  State  Inspectors  of  Health,  Nov.  1,  1907, 
to  Nov.  1,  1908.  From  the  40th  Annual  Report  of  the  Massachusetts 
State  Board  of  Health. 

ibid.  Nov.  1,  1908,  to  Nov.  1,  1909.  From  the  41st  Annual  Report 
of  the  Massachusetts  State  Board  of  Health. 

234 


ENFORCEMENT   OF    LABOR    LAWS 

that  of  the  "spreader  boys"  in  the  rubberized  clothing  fac- 
tories. 

Another  valuable  service  performed  by  the  medical 
inspectors  was  inaugurated  in  Worcester.  Beginning  with 
one  public  spirited  employer,  the  medical  inspector  has  se- 
cured the  co-operation  of  numerous  others  in  combatting  the 
growth  of  tuberculosis  among  their  employes,  by  paying  their 
expenses  at  the  state  sanatorium  for  a  shorter  or  longer  period.* 

These  initial  services  suggest  how  great  a  part  the  medi- 
cal inspector  may  fill  in  helping  to  prevent  deterioration  of 
health  among  factory  workers.  But  in  many  most  important 
respects  the  Massachusetts  system  has  been  no  test  whatever 
of  medical  inspection.  The  inspectors  of  health  are  paid  to 
give  only  part  time  to  this  work;  many  at  the  same  time 
continue  private  practice  as  physicians.  They  have  so  much 
more  work  assigned  to  them  than  they  can  perform  that  in 
January,  1911,  some  medical  inspectors  appointed  in  1907 
had  not  yet  completed  a  tour  of  their  districts.! 

The  so-called  examination  of  children  employed  in  fac- 
tories is  especially  inadequate.  For  instance,  from  among 
43,270  working  children  reported  as  "inspected"  during  the 
year  1907-1908,  only  521  were  found  ill  or  physically  unfit 
for  the  work  they  were  performing.  This  surprising  percent- 
age (scarcely  more  than  one-tenth  of  1  per  cent)  is  explained 
by  the  method  of  "inspecting"  minors.  One  inspector,  for 
instance,  reported: 

"A  total  of  4,881  minors  were  examined.  Of  this 
number,  706  were  inspected  without  conversing  with  them, 
while  passing  through  the  factory. "| 

*  Up  to  April,  1911,  34  industrial  establishments  signified  in  writing 
their  willingness  to  take  part  in  this  campaign.  Twenty-seven  employes 
in  all  have  been  aided.  See  Bulletin  of  the  United  States  Bureau  of  Labor, 
No.  96,  Sept.,  1911,  p.  488.  Hanson,  Wm.  C,  M.D.:  Attitude  of  Massa- 
chusetts Manufacturers  Toward  the  Health  of  Their  Employes. 

t  Report  of  the  Commission  to  Investigate  Inspection  of  Factories, 
Workshops,  Mercantile  Establishments  and  other  buildings.  Boston,  Janu- 
ary, 1911,  p.  60. 

t  Report  of  the  Work  of  the  State  Inspectors  of  Health,  Boston,  1907, 
p.  86. 

235 


FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 

Efforts  have  recently  been  made  to  obtain  places  within 
the  factory  for  more  adequate  examinations. 

Moreover,  the  inspectors  of  health  have  nothing  what- 
ever to  do  with  the  enforcement  of  that  statute  which  our 
study  has  shown  to  be  perhaps  most  important :  the  law  which 
protects  the  workers  against  industrial  fatigue  by  limiting 
their  working  hours.  When  the  office  of  inspector  of  health 
was  created  in  1907  to  enforce  sanitary  regulations,  the  en- 
forcement of  all  other  factory  laws,  including  the  limitation 
of  the  hours  of  labor,  was  left  as  before  to  the  factory  inspec- 
tion department  of  the  Massachusetts  district  police.  No 
co-operation  has  existed  between  the  two  departments.  The 
commission  appointed  in  1910  to  investigate  the  inspection 
of  factories,  etc.,  found  that: 

"The  two  groups  of  inspectors  go  their  separate  ways 
without  assisting  each  other  at  all  in  the  enforcement  of  the 
laws." 

"The  factory  inspectors  and  the  health  inspectors  in 
the  same  district  as  a  rule  never  meet  each  other.  Many 
inspectors  testified  to  this  fact  before  the  Commission. 
Some  of  these  inspectors  assigned  to  the  same  district  act- 
ually met  for  the  first  time  at  the  Commission's  hearing."* 

Thus  the  appointment  of  physicians  as  additional  in- 
spectors of  factories  in  Massachusetts  has  hitherto  been  a 
tentative  experiment — valuable  chiefly  in  demonstrating  the 
wide  possibilities  of  medical  inspection. 


6.    SOME  TECHNICAL  REQUIREMENTS  IN  FACTORY 
INSPECTION 

But  the  character  of  administration  and  inspection  is 
receiving  a  new  attention  in  many  quarters.  It  has  long  been 
a  matter  of  common  knowledge  that,  in  general,  the  caliber 
of  the  men  and  women  who  administer  the  labor  laws  in  the 

*  Report  of  the  Commission  to  Investigate  Inspection  of  Factories, 
etc.     Op.  cit.,  pp.  57  and  67. 

236 


ENFORCEMENT  OF    LABOR    LAWS 

United  States  has  been  utterly  inadequate  for  their  duties. 
Until  1911  only  three  states — Massachusetts,  New  York, 
and  Wisconsin — required  inspectors  to  pass  civil  service  ex- 
aminations before  appointment,  and  by  an  extraordinary 
exemption  Massachusetts  obliged  preference  to  be  given  to 
Civil  War  veterans,  without  examination,  as  inspectors  of 
the  district  police.  This  exemption  is  no  longer  observed, 
but  in  December,  1910,  the  veterans  still  numbered  12  out 
of  28  factory  and  building  inspectors.* 

In  place  of  the  most  elementary  technical  fitness,  chiefs 
of  departments  as  well  as  subordinates  have,  for  the 
most  part,  been  appointed  for  political  or  personal  reasons. 
Hence,  the  first  needs  are  to  make  all  appointments  to  the 
inspection  service  subject  to  civil  service  examinations  of 
the  proper  character,  and  to  assure  tenure  of  office  during 
good  conduct,  instead  of  allowing  inspectors  to  be  displaced 
at  any  moment  by  political  favoritism.  Other  urgent  needs, 
to  improve  the  service,  are  to  pay  more  adequate  salaries 
than  the  present  ones;  to  grade  inspectors  according  to 
their  ability  and  to  promote  them  for  good  service — a  system 
which  has  been  begun  with  good  effects  in  New  York  state. 
Such  and  similar  changes  would  tend  towards  securing  a 
more  valuable  class  of  inspectors. 

There  is  ground  for  encouragement  in  the  yearly  in- 
creasing number  of  men  and  women  of  higher  caliber  who  are 
becoming  available  for  an  improved  service.  The  social 
aspects  of  labor  and  labor  legislation  newly  studied  in  colleges 
and  universities  throughout  the  country,  have  turned  the  at- 
tention of  many  young  men  and  women  to  the  possibilities 
in  this  field.  Special  schools  in  New  York,  Boston,  Chicago, 
Philadelphia,  and  St.  Louis  are  training  students  each  year 
for  social  work,  who  should  be  available  for  administrative 
positions  in  the  service  of  the  state  as  they  are  for  private 
societies.  But  we  need  even  more  than  this.  We  need 
inspectors  equipped  with  technical  training. 

*  In  1911,  New  Jersey  enacted  a  law  requiring  civil  service  examinations 
for  inspectors. 

237 


FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 

At  the  opposite  pole  from  our  disorganized  and  untrained 
system  we  find  such  an  extremely  elaborate  service  as  that 
in  Prussia,  where  there  has  been  a  regular  program  of  training 
since  1897.  Members  of  the  staff,  which  numbers  over  270, 
are  appointed  for  life.  They  must  have  three  years  of 
technical  study  in  such  subjects  as  mechanics,  mining,  or 
chemistry,  and  a  year  and  a  half  of  probationary  practice  in 
the  service.  This  period  is  followed  by  one  and  one-half 
years  of  university  study  in  law  and  political  science,  and  a 
written  and  oral  examination  in  Berlin  by  an  examining 
board  instituted  for  this  special  purpose.* 

Such  extreme  requirements  are  cited  here  merely  by  way 
of  contrast.  They  do  not  appear  as  yet  to  have  resulted  in 
an  ideal  enforcement  of  labor  laws  in  Germany,  and  they 
would  clearly  be  impossible  in  this  country.  But  it  is  be- 
coming more  evident  each  year  that  our  service  is  in  urgent 
need  of  inspectors  of  special  knowledge  and  training. 

No  one  but  a  physician  can  study  the  manifold  relations 
of  industries  to  health,  and  inspect  working  people  (adults 
as  well  as  minors)  in  order  to  learn  the  physical  effects  of 
industrial  fatigue,  dangerous  occupations,  unsanitary  con- 
ditions and  the  like.  The  federal  report  on  the  white  lead 
industry  in  the  United  States  shows  that  dangerous  processes 
regulated  abroad  are  not  only  unregulated  here  but  so  carried 
on  as  to  be  "much  more  dangerous"  to  health  than  they 
are  in  Europe. f  In  such  occupations  a  special  limitation 
of  working  hours  is  called  for,  as  well  as  sanitary  require- 
ments. We  have  seen  that  the  most  eminent  physicians 
in  Canada  were  opposed  to  more  than  six  hours'  work  each 
day  for  girls  in  the  exacting  telephone  service.  In  Germany 
today  adult  men  are  prohibited  from  being  worked  more 
than  two  hours  at  a  stretch  in  certain  dangerous  processes, 

*  Bulletin  of  the  United  States  Bureau  of  Labor,  No.  89.  July,  1910. 
Veditz,  C.  W.  A.,  Ph.D.:   Child  Labor  Legislation  in  Europe,  p.  192. 

t  Bulletin  of  the  United  States  Bureau  of  Labor,  No.  95.  July,  1911. 
Hamilton,  Alice,  M.A.,  M.D.:  White  Lead  Industry  in  the  United  States, 
p.  190. 

238 


ENFORCEMENT   OF    LABOR    LAWS 

such  as  filling  and  emptying  oxidizing  chambers  in  lead 
works.* 

This  is  indeed  the  prime  value  of  the  medical  inspection 
of  work  places:  to  check  industrial  disease  at  its  source.  It 
not  only  removes  to  tuberculosis  sanitaria  and  the  like, 
workers  who  have  acquired  disease  at  their  occupations,  but 
it  performs  a  more  constructive  service.  It  discovers  the 
causes  of  industrial  infection  or  overstrain  in  the  dusty  and 
poisonous  and  straining  processes  of  manufacture;  and  the 
improvement  of  such  conditions  is  more  important  than  the 
cure  of  the  sick.  It  protects  the  workers  before  they  have 
been  injuriously  affected.  Within  the  next  decade  scien- 
tific study  should  show  the  dangers  of  occupations  peculiar 
to  our  country  and  modes  of  manufacture,  and  should 
indicate  in  what  occupations  the  day's  work  must  be  radi- 
cally reduced  to  conserve  the  workers. 

Beside  such  medical  study  of  industry  we  need  other 
technical  study  as  well.  The  ventilation  and  lighting  of 
workrooms,  guarding  of  dangerous  machinery,  and  the 
forced  removal  of  the  noxious  by-products  of  manufacture, 
are  engineering  problems  directly  related  to  the  health  of 
working  people.  They  have  hitherto  been  left  almost  wholly 
to  the  discretion  of  untrained  lay  inspectors.  As  might  have 
been  expected,  little  progress  has  been  made  in  their  solution. 
But  at  least  these  things  have  come  to  be  recognized,  even 
in  America,  as  unsolved  problems  for  professional  study  and 
investigation.  Fixed  standards  of  safety,  sanitation,  ventila- 
tion, and  lighting  have  not  yet  been  agreed  upon,  but  will  be 
perfected  during  the  next  few  years,  and  will  assist  greatly  in 
the  effective  protection  of  working  people. 

It  is  in  this  connection  that  profound  interest  attaches 
to  the  new  scheme  of  administration  recently  devised  by  the 
state  of  Wisconsin.  In  1911  an  industrial  commission  was 
created  which  superseded  all  the  former  machinery  of  inspec- 

*  Bulletin  of  the  United  States  Bureau  of  Labor,  No.  95,  p.  170. 
Factory  Regulations  of  the  Chancellor  of  the  German  Empire  Regarding 
Lead  and  its  Products. 

239 


FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 

tion  and  enforcement.  It  consists  of  three  members,  ap- 
pointed for  periods  of  six  years  each  by  the  governor  of  the 
state.  The  novelty  of  this  commission  Hes  in  its  extra- 
ordinary range  of  power.  It  is  not  only  charged  to  administer 
and  enforce  a  list  of  specified  statutes,  such  as  the  laws  relat- 
ing to  child  labor  and  school  attendance,  women's  employ- 
ment, laundries,  bakeries,  fire-escapes,  and  the  like.  In  addi- 
tion, the  commission  is  practically  enjoined  to  see  to  it  that 
all  work  places  shall  be  safe  and  sanitary.  It  is  specifically 
empowered  to  ascertain,  fix,  and  enforce  standard  safety 
devices,  and  all  other  means  of  protection  for  the  "  life,  health, 
safety,  and  welfare"  of  employes  in  all  places  of  employment. 

No  charter  could  be  wider  than  this.  Under  its  provi- 
sions the  commission  may  appoint  not  only  the  lay  factory 
inspectors,  but  experts  of  every  technical  description,  to 
adopt  and  modify  standards  of  safety  commensurate  with 
the  ever  changing  mechanisms  and  processes  of  industry. 

Such  a  sweeping  and  almost  revolutionary  scheme  of  ad- 
ministration obviously  carries  with  it  potentialities  of  abuse 
as  well  as  of  extraordinary  value.  The  very  breadth  and 
looseness  of  the  powers  conferred  makes  their  effectiveness 
peculiarly  dependent  upon  the  spirit  which  informs  them. 
The  present  personnel  of  the  commission  encourages  the 
most  hopeful  auguries.*  But  time  alone  can  show  whether, 
under  the  Wisconsin  scheme,  the  routine  difficulties  of  the 
subordinate  inspectors  will  be  lessened  or  increased  in  en- 
forcing the  standards,  and  in  withstanding  the  pressure  of 
employers  for  concessions  and  modifications  in  the  name  of 
their  "practical  needs." 

However  that  may  be,  and  whatever  the  value  of  leaving 
free  and  unfixed  the  standards  of  sanitation  and  safety,  so 
far  as  concerns  our  special  subject  (the  curtailment  of  in- 
dustrial fatigue  by  the  limitation  of  working  hours)  we  need 
rigid  statutes  precisely  for  the  sake  of  that  enforcement  which 
is  their  raison  d'etre.     If  the  experience  of  England  and 

*  Prof.  J.  A.  Crownhart,  chairman,  Prof.  John  R.  Commons,  Mr.  J.  D. 
Beck. 

240 


ENFORCEMENT   OF    LABOR    LAWS 

Massachusetts  has  proved  anything,  it  has  proved  that  rigid 
laws  Umiting  the  workday  have  been  enforceable,  and  that 
the  lax  laws  have  not. 

Even  when  trades  are  differentiated  and  varying  hours 
of  labor  must  be  fixed  according  to  their  degrees  of  injurious- 
ness  to  health,  such  special  regulations  should  be  as  nearly 
fixed  and  definite  as  can  be  settled  by  legislation. 

Here,  however,  the  question  arises  as  to  the  rights  of 
legislatures.  Under  their  constitutional  powers,  how  free  are 
they  to  enact  measures  limiting  the  length  of  the  workday? 
To  answer  this,  we  must  next  consider  some  recent  decisions 
of  the  courts  on  the  scope  of  labor  legislation. 


i6 


241 


IX 

LABOR  LAWS  AND  THE  COURTS 

IN  any  discussion  of  the  laws  which  limit  an  adult's 
hours  of  labor,  we  must  constantly  bear  in  mind  the 
fact  that  no  law  is  final  in  the  United  States  until  it  has 
passed  the  review  of  the  courts.  Physicians  may  agree  as  to 
the  urgency  of  curtailing  the  workday,  legislators  may  enact 
such  statutes  in  deference  to  a  public  demand,  but  unless  the 
judges  are  convinced  of  their  harmony  with  the  federal  and 
state  constitutions,  such  laws  are  declared  unconstitutional 
and  are  void. 

At  first  sight,  the  question  of  constitutionality  appears 
to  be  remote  from  the  course  of  our  discussion,  a  region  of 
legal  technicalities  and  abstractions  into  which  the  layman 
may  scarcely  venture,  and  in  which  such  human  forces  as 
hygiene  and  social  welfare  must  count  as  nil.  But  in  fact 
the  reverse  is  true.  In  the  last  resort,  the  constitutionality 
of  these  laws  is  determined  by  no  other  considerations  than 
such  medical  and  social  facts  as  those  which  we  have  dis- 
cussed at  length. 

1.    THE  POLICE  POWER 

In  order  fully  to  understand  this  relation,  we  must  keep 
in  remembrance  the  old  truth  that  government,  indeed  society 
itself  under  any  form  of  government,  means  restraints  of  one 
kind  or  another.  By  the  inexorable  law  of  compensation,  so 
soon  as  men  join  in  any  bonds  of  union,  they  must  surrender 
some  portion  of  their  individual  liberties  in  return  for  the 
solidarity  which  protects  them.  The  state's  right  to  impose 
such  restraints  or  regulations  upon  the  individual  is  called 
the  police  power.     Under  this  power,  all  our  laws  for  the 

242 


LABOR    LAWS    AND   THE    COURTS 

protection  of  health,  safety,  and  welfare  have  been  enacted 
and  sustained  by  the  courts;  laws  such  as  the  quarantine  and 
liquor  laws,  those  establishing  hospitals  and  insane  asylums, 
laws  which  require  fire-escapes  in  hotels,  schools,  and  fac- 
tories, the  fencing  of  dangerous  machinery,  and  a  host  of 
others. 

The  police  power  is  thus  of  widest  application  and  has  no 
definite  limitations.  Its  applications  have  been  repeatedly 
defined  by  the  courts  in  a  very  large  number  of  cases.  "  From 
the  mass  of  decisions,"  says  Professor  Freund,  one  of  the  fore- 
most writers  on  this  subject,  "it  is  possible  to  evolve  at  least 
two  main  attributes  or  characteristics  which  differentiate  the 
police  power;  it  aims  directly  to  secure  and  promote  the  pub- 
i_lic  welfare,  and  it  does  so  by  restraint  and  compulsion."* 

Hence,  in  reviewing  legislation  the  courts  must  decide 
whether  any  specific  statute  is  justifiable  in  order  to  pre- 
serve the  public  health,  safety,  and  welfare,  or  whether  it 
infringes  unduly  upon  personal  liberties.  Here  we  reach  the 
core  of  our  difficulty  and  the  obstacle  which  has  stood  in  the  \ 
path  of  labor  legislation.  4 


2.  THE  "FREEDOM  OF  CONTRACT"  THEORY 

It  is  a  fact  of  common  knowledge  that  after  our  civil 
war,  the  fourteenth  amendment  of  the  Federal  Constitution 
was  adopted,  and  similar  provisions  in  the  state  constitutions, 
declaring  that  "no  state  shall  deprive  any  person  of  life, 
liberty,  or  property  without  due  process  of  law." 

By  one  of  life's  ironies,  this  wellknown  phrase  has  been 
interpreted  by  the  courts  as  prohibiting  the  protection  of 
working  people  in  sundry  ways,  on  the  ground  that  their 
individual  rights  are  interfered  with.  Labor  is  property,  said 
the  judges.  The  laborer  has  the  same  right  to  sell  his  labor 
and  to  contract  with  his  employer  as  any  other  property 
owner.     Hence  the  laws  limiting  hours  of  labor,  or  regulating 

*  Freund,  Ernst:  The  Police  Power,  p.  3.  Chicago,  Callaghan  and 
Co.,  1904. 

243 


--^  FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 

labor  in  other  wa\s,  are  in  conflict  with  the  fourteenth 
amendment,  because  they  interfere  with  the  laborer's  indi- 
vidual property  rights. 

This  theory  of  the  so-called  "freedom  of  contract"  was 
not  invoked  against  labor  legislation  until  twenty  years  after 
the  fourteenth  amendment  had  been  adopted  for  a  very 
different  purpose.  In  1886,  the  Supreme  Courts  of  Illinois 
and  Pennsylvania  first  threw  out  certain  labor  cases  as  un- 
constitutional on  this  ground.* 

The  "freedom  of  contract"  assumption  has  so  vitally 
affected  the  very  existence  of  the  laws  in  which  we  are  con- 
cerned, that  we  may  well  glance  at  the  six  or  seven  most  im- 
portant decisions  of  superior  courts  on  the  subject,  handed 
down  during  the  last  sixteen  years,  between  1895  and  1911. 

The  fallacy  of  this  thesis  has  been  of  late  so  much  dis- 
cussed that  it  need  not  delay  us  long.  It  is  coming  to  be 
recognized  that  since  employes  do  not  stand  upon  an  equal- 
ity in  bargaining  power  with  their  employers,  the  so-called 
"right"  to  contract  for  a  day  of  any  length  is  purely  theoret- 
ical. The  worker  in  fact  obeys  the  compulsion  of  circum- 
stance. No  one  can  suppose  that  young  women  working  in 
the  box  factories  of  Chicago,  discussed  in  a  previous  chapter, 
need  or  desire  to  be  protected  in  their  "right"  to  labor  over- 
time nine  months  in  the  year;  or  that  women  in  laundries 
should  be  "free"  to  work  fourteen  hours  or  more  during 
several  days  of  the  week.  They  have,  in  fact,  no  choice  or 
freedom  in  the  matter.  The  alternative  is  to  work  or  starve. 
To  refuse  means  to  be  dismissed.  Modern  industry  has 
reduced  "freedom  of  contract"  to  a  paper  privilege,  a  mere 
figure  of  rhetoric. 

The  First  Ritchie  Case.  Yet  this  was  precisely  the 
ground  upon  which  the  judges  of  the  Illinois  Supreme  Court 
in  1895  declared  invalid  an  Illinois  eight-hour  law  for  women 
employed  in  factories.     In  what  is  known  as  the  first  Ritchie 

*  Freund,  Ernst:  Constitutional  Limitations  and  Labor  Legislation, 
pp.  51-7L  Address  before  the  Third  Annual  Meeting  of  the  American 
Association  for  Labor  Legislation,  New  York,  December,  1909. 

244 


LABOR    LAWS    AND    THE    COURTS 

case,*  they  declared  that  the  poHce  power  of  the  state  did 
not  sanction  such  an  interference  with  the  working  hours  of 
adult  women.  There  was  no  "fair,  just,  and  reasonable 
connection  between  such  limitation  and  the  public  health, 
safety,  or  welfare  proposed  to  be  secured  by  it."  Hence  the 
law  was  declared  unconstitutional;  and  for  thirteen  years, 
until  this  decision  was  practically  over-ruled  by  the  United 
States  Supreme  Court  in  1908,  it  retarded  the  movement  for 
the  protection  of  working  women  in  all  our  states. 

The  Case  of  Holden  v.  Hardy.  Curiously  enough, 
three  years  after  the  decision  in  the  Ritchie  case,  a  law  limiting . 
men's  hours  of  labor  was  carried  to  the  federal  Supreme  Court 
at  Washington  and  was  sustained.!  This  case  involved  the 
validity  of  the  Utah  law  fixing  an  eight-hour  day  for  men 
employed  in  mines  and  smelters.  The  court  handed  down  a 
decision  which  has  become  almost  a  classic  in  its  clear  state- 
ment of  the  broad  principles  at  issue.  It  is  true  that  the 
employments  regulated  were  clearly  dangerous  to  health, 
safety,  and  welfare.  Therefore  the  limitation  of  hours  was 
more  obviously  justifiable  under  the  police  power.  Indeed, 
the  court  based  its  favorable  decision  on  the  fact  that  work 
in  mines  and  smelters  was  not  like  ordinary  employment, 
but  that  the  operative  was 

".  .  .  deprived  of  fresh  air  and  sunlight  and  is  subject 
to  the  foul  atmosphere  and  a  very  high  temperature,  or  to 
the  influence  of  noxious  gases." 

But  the  judges  dealt  not  only  with  the  hazards  of  these 
employments.  They  struck  a  loftier  note  which  rises  clear 
and  strong  above  the  technical  argument.  They  were  pre- 
occupied with  something  larger  than  the  single  law  in  dispute. 
It  was  the  state  which  figured  before  them — a  congregate 
whole  which  was  only  as  great  as  "the  sum  of  all  its 
parts."     These  parts,  they  said  in  stirring  words,  did  not 

*  Ritchie  v.  People.  155  III.  98  (1895). 
t  Holden  v.  Hardy,  169  U.  S.  366  (1898). 

245 


FATIGLE    AND    EFFICIENCY 

Stand  upon  an  equality  with  one  another  in  the  economic 
scale,  and  therein  lay  both  the  need  and  the  justification  of 
the  state's  intervention. 

"  But  the  fact  that  both  parties  are  of  full  age,  and  com- 
petent to  contract,  does  not  necessarily  deprive  the  state  of 
the  power  to  interfere,  where  the  parties  do  not  stand  upon 
an  equality,  or  where  the  public  health  demands  that  one 
party  to  the  contract  shall  be  protected  against  himself. 
The  state  still  retains  an  interest  in  his  welfare,  however  reck- 
less he  may  be.  The  whole  is  no  greater  than  the  sum  of  all 
the  parts,  and  when  the  individual  health,  safety,  and  welfare 
are  sacrificed  or  neglected,  the  state  must  suffer." 

It  is  significant,  as  the  court  pointed  out  also  in  this  de- 
cision, that  such  cases  as  the  one  at  bar  have  not  been  brought 
by  working  people  eager  to  secure  their  "right"  to  labor  any 
number  of  hours,  but  by  the  employers  to  whose  advantage 
it  is  for  them  so  to  labor.  "The  argument,"  said  the  court, 
"  would  certainly  come  with  better  grace  and  better  cogency 
from  the  other  class." 

These  two  decisions,  then,  set  forth  clearly  the  issue 
between  personal  liberty  and  the  police  power,  in  the 
Ritchie  decision  the  judges  set  a  theoretical  freedom  above 
concrete  realities.  In  Holden  v.  Hardy  the  law  appeared  to  be 
justified  by  its  necessity. 

The  Lochner  Case.  The  next  case  to  be  considered 
is  the  only  other  one  in  which  the  United  States  Supreme 
Court  has  rendered  an  opinion  as  to  the  validity  of  a  law 
limiting  the  hours  of  adult  men  in  private  employment.* 
This  was  the  New  York  law  for  bakers,  restricting  the 
hours  of  labor  in  bakeries  to  ten  hours  in  one  day,  or  sixty 
hours  in  one  week,  overtime  being  allowed  for  the  purpose 
of  shortening  the  last  day  of  the  week.  In  1901  the  law  was 
attacked  as  unconstitutional  by  a  master  baker.  It  was 
sustained  by  the  New  York  courts  and  then  appealed  to  the 

*  Lochner  v.  New  York,  198  U.  S.  45  (1905). 
246 


LABOR    LAWS    AND   THE    COURTS 

Supreme  Court  at  Washington  which  declared  it  unconstitu- 
tional. 

Here  we  have  the  same  court  which  upheld  the  validity 
of  the  Utah  law  dismissing  the  New  York  law  as  one  of  the 
"  mere  meddlesome  interferences  with  the  rights  of  the  indi- 
vidual." 

Where  the  Utah  decision  took  a  firm  stand  in  behalf  of 
those  who  did  not  "stand  upon  an  equality,"  the  decision  in 
the  Lochner  case  repudiates  the  idea  that  bakers  are  in  any 
sense  wards  of  the  state.*  The  judges  were  again,  as  in  the 
earlier  Illinois  case,  unable  to  see  any  connection  between  the 
proposed  limitation  of  hours  and  the  public  health  and  wel- 
fare. Bakeries,  unlike  mines  and  smelters,  did  not  seem  to 
them  dangerous  enough  to  regulate.  Doubtless  it  will  be 
genuinely  surprising  in  the  future  to  reflect  that,  in  this  sig- 
nificant case,  a  majority  of  the  United  States  Supreme  Court 
could  find  no  "reasonable  ground"  to  justify  the  New  York 
bakers'  law.  A  majority  opinion  of  the  New  York  Court  of 
Appeals  had  dwelt  upon  the  dangers  to  health  arising  from 
excessive  hours  in  the  heated,  dust-laden  atmosphere  of  the 
bakeries.  A  concurring  opinion  had  cited  medical  authori- 
ties at  length  to  show  the  unhealthful  nature  of  such  hours 
of  work.  Yet  the  reaction  is  more  apparent  than  real.  In 
substance  the  Lochner  decision  does  not  over-rule  the  court's 
previous  sanction  of  the  Utah  law.  The  way  was  still  left 
open  for  the  justification  of  other  laws  limiting  the  workday, 
if  the  judges  could  be  shown  "that  there  is  material  danger 
to  the  public  health,  or  to  the  health  of  the  employe,  if  the 
hours  of  labor  are  not  curtailed." 

The  Williams  Case  and  its  Challenge.  Unfortun- 
ately, in  the  next  decision  we  are  to  examine,  legal  technicali- 
ties again  predominated  in  the  minds  of  the  judges  over  the 

*  In  a  valuable  article  on  Legislative  Restriction  of  Hours  of  Labor, 
Bulletin  of  the  New  York  Labor  Department,  No.  46,  March,  1911,  John  A. 
Fitch  draws  attention  to  the  fact  that  it  was  Judge  Peckham,  who  had  dis- 
sented from  the  opinion  of  the  court  in  Holden  v.  Hardy,  who  wrote  the 
opinion  in  Lochner  v.  New  York. 

247 


FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 

simple  facts  of  industrial  life,  of  which  they  were  evidently 
unaware.  Two  years  after  the  bakers'  law  had  been  upheld 
by  New  York's  highest  court,  the  same  bench,  in  the  Williams 
case,  declared  invalid  a  law  prohibiting  the  employment  of 
women  in  factories  between  9  p.  m.  and  6  a.  m.*  This  case 
was  of  deep  significance  for  the  cause  of  women.  It  was  the 
first,  and  is  the  only  decision  by  any  court,  which  deals  with 
women's  night  work.  As  we  have  seen,  there  were  in  1907 
only  four  state  laws  existent  on  the  subject. f  For  our  coun- 
try has  lagged  conspicuously  behind  the  rest  of  the  world  in 
seeking  to  control  night  work,  the  form  of  labor  most  fraught 
with  possibilities  of  injury  to  the  human  frame,  particularly 
to  the  health  of  women.  Yet  the  New  York  Court  of  Ap- 
peals deliberately  ignored  all  the  broader  implications  of 
the  case;  all  those  intricate  social  aspects  of  night  work,  its 
effects  upon  health  and  the  home  and  general  welfare,  which 
European  statesmen  had  been  studying  for  years,  and  which 
had  culminated  in  the  Berne  International  Convention  on 
Night  Work  eight  months  previous  to  the  Williams  case — all 
these  wider  issues  were  not  even  touched  upon.  We  seek  in 
vain  for  that  freer  air  of  statesmanship  and  understanding 
which  breathes  from  the  decision  of  Holden  v.  Hardy,  in 
the  Williams  case  the  court  deliberately  limited  itself  to  con- 
sidering "solely"  whether  work  at  10:20  p.  m.  (as  in  the  case 
at  bar)  was  injurious  enough  to  warrant  interference  with 
women's  "freedom  of  contract."  They  were  genuinely  con- 
cerned because,  under  the  existing  law,  no  woman  could  be 
employed  within  the  prohibited  hours  for  any  period  of  time 
"no  matter  how  short." % 

But  the  real  issue  did  not  center  on  this  single  narrow 
aspect  of  the  matter.  It  stands  to  reason  that  work  at 
10:20  p.  m.  is  not  in  itself  inherently  injurious.  But  night 
work,  as  it  exists  in  reality,  does  not  consist  of  such  isolated 
theoretical  employment.     As  we  have  seen,   it   means,   in 

*  People  V.  Williams,  189  N.  Y.  131  (1907). 

t  In  New  York,  Massachusetts,  Nebraska,  and  Indiana. 

X  Italics  added. 

248 


LABOR    LAWS    AND   THE    COURTS 

practice,  either  overtime  work  prolonged  into  the  evening 
after  and  in  addition  to  the  normal  day,  or  employment  on 
continuous  night  shifts.  Both  these  forms  of  night  work  the 
judges  in  the  Williams  case  expressly  deplored;  but  in  their 
anxiety  to  preserve  women's  "freedom"  to  work  a  theoret- 
ical short  period  after  9  p.  m.,  on  the  assumption  that  such 
work  was  neither  long  nor  overtime,  they  opened  the  way  for 
precisely  the  evils  which  they  themselves  condemned!  And 
we  have  had,  in  consequence,  such  formidable  examples  of 
night  work  as  in  the  binderies  running  twenty-four  hours  at  a 
stretch,  quoted  in  a  previous  chapter.  These  have  been  the 
direct  results,  the  corollaries  of  the  Williams  decision. 

Now  the  writer  of  that  decision  had  gone  so  far  as  to 
state  specifically:  "1  find  nothing  in  the  language  of  the 
section  which  suggests  the  purpose  of  promoting  health  ex- 
cept as  it  might  be  inferred  that  for  a  woman  to  work  dur- 
ing the  forbidden  hours  of  the  night  would  be  unhealthful." 
Here  was  an  explicit  challenge  thrown  down  by  the  learned 
writer  of  this  opinion.  If,  indeed,  the  language  of  the  law 
contained  nothing  which  suggested  to  the  court  the  purpose  of 
promoting  health,  clearly  that  purpose  should  have  been  made 
clear,  beyond  the  shadow  of  a  doubt,  in  the  law's  defense.  <' 

In  defending  the  cases  which  we  have  reviewed  up  to  this 
point,  the  arguments  and  citations  of  the  lawyers  had  been 
almost  wholly  confined  to  the  purely  legal  aspects  of  those 
actions.  Briefs  of  counsel  had  discussed  in  infinite  detail  the 
power.  But  the  point  at  issue  had  in  fact  wholly  shifted  from 
relation  between  the  fourteenth  amendment  and  the  police 
the  state's  abstract  right  to  restrict  individual  rights,  to  the 
practical  necessity  for  every  such  restriction.  The  ques- 
tion was  no  longer  abstract  and  legal,  but  rather  in  a  deep 
sense  social  and  medical.  It  followed  that  the  purely  legal 
defense  of  these  laws  was  falling  wide  of  the  mark.  It  had 
long  been  unreasonable  to  expect  that  judges,  trained  in 
schools  remote  from  factories  and  workshops,  should  be 
conversant  with  those  underlying  practices  and  conditions 

249 


FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 

which  alone  could  justly  weight  the  scales.  The  men  upon 
the  bench  needed  for  their  guidance  the  empirical  testimony 
of  the  working  woman's  physician,  the  factory  inspector,  and 
the  economist.     They  needed,  in  a  word,  to  know  the  facts. 

For  some  years  previous  to  the  Williams  decision,  many 
persons  interested  in  labor  legislation,  and  particularly  the 
Consumers'  League,  had  been  following  in  detail  the  in- 
fluence of  successive  court  decisions.*  In  an  earlier  case, 
involving  the  validity  of  certain  sections  of  the  New  York 
child  labor  law,t  the  writer  of  these  pages  had  been  called 
upon  to  furnish  the  presiding  judge  with  testimony  from  the 
New  York  Factory  Inspectors'  reports,  relative  to  the  social 
value  of  such  legislation. 

Before  the  Williams  case  had  been  carried  to  the  New 
York  Court  of  Appeals, |  the  writer  had  made  an  effort  to 
obtain  some  expressions  of  opinion  from  physicians,  on  the 
subject  of  women's  employment  at  night,  comparable  with 
the  findings  of  European  physicians.  It  was  hoped  that 
some  prominent  medical  men  in  New  York  might  be  induced 
to  state  their  views  of  the  physical  injuries  incident  to  in- 
dustrial night  work,  just  as  in  1892  a  group  of  distinguished 
and  public-spirited  British  physicians  had  presented  to 
Parliament  a  memorial  on  the  injuries  from  overlong  hours 
in  shops,  in  support  of  Sir  John  Lubbock's  Early  Closing 
Bill.§ 

But  from  among  ten  prominent  New  York  physicians 
who  were  approached,  only  two  were  willing  to  express  them- 
selves publicly.     One  of  these  was  a  physician  grown  old  in 

*  See  Kelley,  Florence:  Some  Ethical  Gains  Through  Legislation. 
New  York,  Macmillan,  1905.  Goidmark,  Josephine:  The  Necessary  Sequel 
of  Child  Labor  Laws,  Amer.  Jour,  of  Sociology,  pp.  312-325.  Nov.,  1905; 
Workingwomen  and  the  Laws.  Annals  of  the  American  Academy  of  Po- 
litical and  Social  Science,  pp.  261-276.     Sept.,  1906. 

t  The  City  of  New  York  v.  Chelsea  Jute  Mills.     43  Misc.  266.  (1904). 

X  The  law  had  been  declared  unconstitutional  by  the  Appellate  Divi- 
sion of  the  New  York  Supreme  Court,  two  out  of  five  judges  dissenting. 

§  British  Sessional  Papers,  1892.  Vol.  XII,  p.  238.  Among  the 
signers  of  the  memorial  are  such  weliknown  names  as  Sir  Andrew  Clark, 
Sir  Richard  Quain,  and  298  others.     See  Part  II  of  this  volume,  p.  515. 

250 


LABOR    LAWS    AND   THE    COURTS 

service  whose  life-long  practice  had  made  him  as  familiar 
with  the  dire  effects  of  industrial  overwork  as  of  excessive 
idleness.  The  other  was  a  younger  man  whose  active  part 
in  the  tuberculosis  campaign  had  brought  forcibly  to  his 
notice  some  of  the  contributory  causes  of  overstrain  among 
working  people.  The  striking  fact  in  the  refusal  of  the  other 
physicians  to  share  in  any  arraignment  of  the  night  shift 
or  late  overtime  work  for  women,  was  their  general  remote- 
ness from  the  common  facts  of  what  seemed  almost  like  a 
different  order  of  existence.  The  speed,  the  strain,  and  the 
long  hours  of  factory  life  belonged  to  a  chapter  of  human  life 
wholly  outside  of  their  own  crowded  and  specialized  lives. 
Not  one  of  them  raised  the  objection  that  a  public  expression 
of  medical  opinions  might  be  construed  as  an  attempt  to 
prejudice  the  case.  They  were  unacquainted  with  the  facts 
at  first  hand  and,  indeed,  for  the  most  part,  doubted  their 
existence. 

This  modest  attempt,  then,  failed.  But  when,  in  1907, 
the  decision  of  the  Court  of  Appeals  in  the  Williams  case  ex- 
plicitly stated  the  court's  inability  to  see  the  purpose  of  the 
law,  it  became  more  than  ever  apparent  that  a  new  emphasis 
was  needed  in  the  defense  of  labor  legislation,  and  we  awaited 
the  opportunity  in  which  to  put  this  belief  into  practice. 

The  Oregon  Case  and  a  New  Line  of  Defense. 
Such  an  opportunity  offered  in  the  very  same  year.  A 
laundryman  was  arrested  for  violation  of  the  Oregon  law 
fixing  a  ten-hour  day  for  women  employed  in  factories  and 
laundries.  The  validity  of  the  law  was  affirmed  by  the 
Oregon  courts,  and  in  December,  1907,  an  appeal  was  taken 
to  the  United  States  Supreme  Court  at  Washington.  Here, 
then,  was  an  opportunity  to  present  the  real  issue  to  the 
highest  court  in  the  land,  concerned  for  the  first  time  in  its 
history  with  a  statute  limiting  the  workday  of  adult  wom.en. 
By  good  fortune,  the  active  interest  of  a  distinguished  lawyer* 

*Mr.  Louis  D.  Brandeis  of  Boston,  who  has  given  his  invaluable  ser- 
vices unpaid  in  these  cases. 

251 


FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 

was  enlisted  and  he  proposed  to  put  these  issues  before  the 
court  in  a  new  way.  His  argument  and  brief  marked  a  radi- 
cal departure  in  the  defense  of  labor  laws.  It  confined  itself 
to  the  tangible  human  elements  involved — health,  welfare, 
and  economic  efficiency.* 

In  a  brief  of  more  than  100  pages,  he  devoted  two  to  the 
legal  aspects  of  the  case,  and  over  100  to  a  new  kind  of  testi- 
mony— mankind's  experience,  physical  and  moral,  with  re- 
spect to  women  in  industry  and  the  duration  of  their  work- 
ing hours.  The  document  was  made  up  from  the  accumu- 
lated mass  of  British  and  Continental  factory  inspectors' 
reports,  commissions  and  enqueies,  as  well  as  the  observations 
of  medical  men  and  economists.  It  was  well  received  by  the 
court,  which  in  its  decision  upheld  the  validity  of  the  Oregon 
law.  Quoting  from  the  new  empirical  evidence  contained  in 
the  brief,  the  court  stated  that  it  "took  judicial  cognizance 
of  all  matters  of  general  knowledge,"  thus  in  a  single  phrase 
warranting  the  new  emphasis  upon  practical  data.f 

The  decision  in  the  Oregon  case  was  indeed  no  narrow 
/^r\  /victory.  It  was  the  most  sweeping  decision  ever  rendered 
by  the  federal  Supreme  Court  in  relation  to  working  hours. 
It  was  not  confined  to  the  consideration  of  the  ten-hour  day 
or  to  a  working  day  of  any  particular  length.  It  left  to  the 
states  the  liberty  to  determine  what  working  hours  were 
wholesome  and  reasonable.  It  went  far  beyond  the  statute 
at  issue,  which  dealt  with  the  employment  of  women  in  fac- 
tories and  laundries,  and  looked  towards  the  protection  of 
women  in  other  employments.  In  a  word,  the  highest  court 
of  the  nation  rejected  the  fiction  of  the  free  contract  as  re- 
gards the  working  woman  and  declared  that  "her  physical 
nature  and  the  evil  effects  of  overwork  upon  her  and  her 
future  children  justify  legislation  to  protect  her  from  the 
greed  as  well  as  the  passion  of  men."  The  new  method  of 
defense  had  amply  justified  itself. 

*  Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States,  October  Term,  1907.  Curt 
MuUer  v.  the  State  of  Oregon.  Brief  and  Argument  for  Defendant  by 
Louis  D.  Brandeis  and  Josephine  Goidmark. 

tSee  Part  II,  p.  558. 

252 


o 


LABOR    LAWS    AND   THE    COURTS 

The  Second  Ritchie  Case.  It  was  again  to  be  put 
into  practice  and  again  to  be  justified  in  the  following 
year  (1909),  immediately  after  the  auspicious  Oregon  deci- 
sion had  in  principle  reversed  the  earlier  Ritchie  decision  of 
the  Illinois  Supreme  Court.  The  way  was  now  open  for  laws 
protecting  women  from  overwork,  and  many  states  enacted 
such  legislation.  Among  others,  the  Illinois  legislature  of 
1909  provided  a  ten-hour  day  for  women  employed  in  laun- 
dries and  factories.  Hence,  fourteen  years  after  the  first 
Ritchie  decision,  a  new  law  was  carried  up  to  the  Illinois 
Supreme  Court  for  its  adjudication.* 

A  wholly  new  bench  of  judges  were  sitting  in  the  case. 
The  widespread  public  curiosity  throughout  Illinois  as  to  the 
outcome  of  this  case,  bore  witness  to  a  new  recognition  of  the 
large  issues  at  stake,  not  only  to  women  in  industry,  but  to  the 
state.  The  court  in  sustaining  the  ten-hour  law  was  not 
deterred  as  the  same  court  had  been  fourteen  years  before  by 
the  freedom  of  contract  theory.  All  that  body  of  "general 
knowledge"  which  the  federal  judges  had  taken  into  cog- 
nizance, was  again  admitted  to  carry  its  due  weight.  In  a 
single  illuminating  sentence  the  Illinois  court  also  responded 
to  the  new  emphasis  upon  the  substantial  and  substantiated 
facts,  remarking,  "what  we  know  as  men  we  cannot  profess 
to  be  ignorant  of  as  judges." 


3.    THE  distinctions  OF  SEX 

Now  among  these  facts  known  to  all  men  and  presented 
to  the  court,  were  the  ill  effects  of  industrial  speeding,  strain, 
and  the  like,  upon  working  women,  qua  women.  Their 
physical  organization,  the  greater  morbidity  of  working 
women  compared  with  men  in  the  same  occupations,  and  the 
dependence  of  future  generations  upon  the  health  of  women, 
all  had  been  dwelt  upon  to  justify  the  legal  restriction  of 
their  hours.  This  was  because  the  earlier  decisions,  over- 
throwing the  validity  of  women's  labor  laws,  had  denied  any 
♦Ritchie  &  Co.  v.  Wayman,  244  111.  509  (1910). 
253 


FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 

special  protection  to  women  "on  the  mere  fact  of  sex." 
Women  were  citizens,  hence  their  contractual  powers  could 
not  be  disturbed.  Indeed  the  New  York  Court  of  Appeals 
went  so  far  as  to  say  in  the  face  of  civilized  precedent,  that 
"an  adult  woman  is  not  to  be  regarded  ...  in  any 
other  light  than  the  man  is  regarded,  when  the  question  re- 
lates to  the  business  pursuit,  or  calling." 

This  specious  argument  and  the  alleged  impossibility  of 
differentiating  between  men  and  women  was,  indeed,  long 
an  obstacle  in  the  way  of  securing  women's  laws.  Thus  in 
England  between  1874  and  1901  the  factory  acts  were  in  the 
main  opposed  by  an  important  wing  of  the  women's  rights 
party.  Superficially  viewed,  the  great  movement  to  obtain 
for  women,  in  all  fields,  rights  from  which  they  have  been 
debarred,  might  appear  inconsistent  with  the  effort  to  pro- 
tect one  sex  as  contrasted  with  the  other.  But  this  is  a 
fundamental  misconception.  It  ignores  the  fact  that  pro- 
tection of  health  has  never  been  held  a  bar  to  the  efficiency 
of  men  as  citizens. 

It  has  yet  to  be  suggested,  for  instance,  that  the  miners 
of  13  states — Arizona,  California,  Colorado,  Idaho,  Mary- 
land, Missouri,  Montana,  Nevada,  Oregon,  Oklahoma,  Utah, 
Washington,  and  Wyoming — are  discriminated  against,  be- 
cause the  state  restricts  their  working  hours  to  eight  in 
one  day*  for  the  explicit  purpose  of  protecting  the  health 
of  its  citizens.  It  has  yet  to  be  suggested  that  the  inter- 
state railroad  telegraphers  are  less  valuable  as  citizens  than 
any  other  men  because  Congress,  in  1907,  restricted  their 
work  to  thirteen  hours  by  day  and  nine  hours  by  night. 
This  statute  and  similar  restrictions  in  many  states  were 
enacted  nominally  to  safeguard  the  traveling  public.  But 
its  only  excuse  for  being  is  the  effect  of  excessive  hours  upon 
the  operative's  efficiency.  These  restrictions  upon  men's 
working  hours  have  never  interfered  with  their  value  or 
dignity  as  citizens.     Why  then,  should  similar  restrictions — 

*  Ten  hours  in  one  day  in  Maryland,  applying  to  Allegany  and  Garrett 
counties. 

254 


LABOR    LAWS    AND   THE    COURTS 

wider  and  more  inclusive  for  women — operate  against  their 
dignity  or  value  as  citizens?  Their  physical  endowments  and 
special  functions  make  the  protection  of  their  health  even 
more  necessary  than  the  protection  of  men's  health;  they 
need  even  more  than  men  the  legislative  protection  which, 
as  Justice  Brewer  said  in  the  Oregon  case,  "is  designed  to 
compensate  for  some  of  the  burdens  which  rest  upon"  them. 

It  is  true  that,  as  we  have  seen,  the  restriction  of  men's 
hours  of  labor  has  been  upheld  by  the  courts  only  when  the 
occupations  sought  to  be  regulated  are  manifestly  dangerous 
to  health,  such  as  mines  and  smelters,  or  where  public  safety 
is  directly  concerned,  as  in  railroading.  Yet  in  so  far  as 
prohibition  of  excessive  hours  for  men  has  been  justified  by 
dangers  resulting  to  their  health  and  efficiency,  the  argument 
for  more  inclusive  women's  laws  is  precisely  similar. 

Fortunately  this  view  has  on  the  whole  prevailed  in 
the  United  States,  and  the  steadily  growing  equal  suffrage 
societies  have  taken  a  logical  stand  in  defense  of  the  state's 
responsibilities  towards  working  people,  be  they  men  or 
women. 

Why,  indeed,  should  these  measures,  justifiable  on  the 
broad  ground  of  health  and  welfare,  be  in  the  future  limited 
to  women?  The  New  York  State  Department  of  Labor  has 
recently  published  a  thoughtful  review  of  judicial  decisions 
dealing  with  the  hours  of  labor  of  adult  men.*  The  writer, 
John  A.  Fitch,  has  brought  together  the  most  important 
conservative  dicta  of  the  courts  (typified  by  the  Lochner 
decision  overthrowing  the  bakers'  law)  and  their  most  pro- 
gressive utterances.!     He  concludes  that  while  the  judiciary 

*  Bulletin  of  New  York  State  Department  of  Labor,  No.  46.  March, 
1911,  p.  90. 

t  Of  such  progressive  utterances  none  are  more  striking  than  the  two 
following  paragraphs,  taken,  respectively,  from  decisions  of  the  New  York 
Court  of  Appeals  and  of  the  Superior  Court  of  Pennsylvania: 

"In  the  interest  of  public  health,  of  public  morals  and  of  public  order, 
a  state  may  restrain  and  forbid  what  would  otherwise  be  the  right  of  a 
private  citizen.  .  .  .  It  may  limit  the  hours  of  employment  of  adults  in 
unhealthy  work,  and  it  may  he  that  it  could  prohibit  the  performance  of  ex- 
cessive physical  labor  in  all  callings."  (People  v.  Orange  County  Road  Con- 
struction Co.,  175  N.  Y.,  84,  87.)     Italics  added. 

255 


FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 

is,  as  a  whole,  on  the  side  of  conservatism,  the  advanced 
sentiments  found  in  sundry  decisions  indicate  "conditions 
other  than  stationary." 

In  upholding  the  validity  of  many  Sunday  laws,  the 
courts  have  repeatedly  declared  that  the  cessation  of  labor 
one  day  in  seven  is  essential  for  health,  morals,  and  general 
welfare.  It  has  not  yet  been  made  manifest  to  the  judges 
that  an  adequate  daily  period  of  rest  for  men  is  as  essential 
as  the  weekly  rest  period.  The  question  arises  whether  laws 
limiting  men's  hours  of  labor  might  not  have  a  more  favorable 
outlook  for  being  sustained  by  the  courts  "if  an  effort  were 
made  similar  to  the  effort  in  the  Oregon  and  Illinois  women's 
cases,  to  present  evidence  with  respect  to  long  hours  of  work 
in  industries  where  men  are  employed."  Could  not  such 
evidence  readily  be  found  to  justify  laws  prohibiting  the 
twelve-hour  shifts  in  continuous  industries,  and  requiring 
the  employment  of  three  shifts  instead  of  two?  The  out- 
rageous duration  of  work  in  continuous  industries*  and  the 
brutalizing  effects  of  the  twelve-hour  day  and  eighty-four- 
hour  week  would  make  this  perhaps  the  most  timely  legisla- 
tion for  men.  Some  laws  embodying  these  principles  already 
exist.  In  Montana  and  Pennsylvania  there  are  eight-hour 
laws  for  hoisting  engineers,  in  mines  operated  sixteen  hours 
or  more  a  day;  and  the  federal  law  has  already  been  re- 
ferred to,  which  provides  for  interstate  telegraphers  a  thirteen 
hour  day  in  offices  open  only  by  day  and  a  nine-hour  period 
in  offices  open  both  day  and  night. 

"A  prohibition  upon  unhealthy  practices,  whether  inherently  so,  or 
such  as  may  become  so  by  reason  of  prolonged  and  exacting  physical  exertion 
which  is  likely  to  result  in  enfeebled  or  diseased  bodies,  and  thereby  directly 
or  consequently  afTecting  the  health,  safety,  or  morals  of  the  community, 
cannot,  in  any  just  sense,  be  deemed  a  taking  or  an  appropriation  of  property. 

"The  length  of  time  a  laborer  shall  be  subject  to  the  exhaustive  exer- 
tion or  physical  labor  is  as  clearly  within  legislative  control  as  is  the  govern- 
ment inspection  of  boilers,  machinery,  etc.,  to  avoid  accidents,  or  of  the 
sanitary  conditions  of  factories  and  the  like  to  preserve  the  health  of  labor- 
ers."    (Commonwealth  v.  Beatty,  15  Pa.  Sup.  Ct.,  5,  15.) 

*  See  p.  4. 

256 


LABOR    LAWS    AND    THE    COURTS 

4.    THE  QUESTION  OF  DISCRIMINATION 

One  further  point  regarding  the  vaHdity  of  these  laws 
needs  comment  in  this  brief  chronicle.  This  concerns  another 
section  of  the  fourteenth  amendment,  declaring  that  no 
state  shall  "deny  to  any  person  within  its  jurisdiction  equal 
protection  of  the  laws."  Under  this,  or  similar  provisions 
in  state  constitutions,  laws  regulating  conditions  of  labor 
have  been  declared  invalid,  as  discriminating  improperly 
between  persons  or  classes,  thus  denying  equal  protection  of 
the  laws. 

Now  it  must  be  remembered  that  in  their  review  of 
legislation,  it  is  the  function  of  the  courts  to  determine 
whether  the  legislature  had  any  reasonable  grounds  for  its 
action;  not  whether  the  laws  as  enacted  are  inherently  and 
in  themselves  good  or  bad,  but  whether  the  legislature  was 
justified  in  its  conclusions,  as  embodied  in  the  laws. 

Obviously,  in  enacting  any  laws  limiting  hours  of  labor, 
the  legislature  must  use  its  discretion  in  choosing  among 
various  alternatives,  such  as  the  number  of  hours  to  be  fixed, 
the  persons  to  be  protected,  and  other  similar  points.  Op- 
ponents of  these  laws  have  usually  raised  the  contention  that 
they  were  unfairly  discriminatory,  because  certain  persons  or 
classes  of  persons  were  included  or  left  out. 

In  the  Ritchie  case,  for  instance,  it  was  claimed  that  the 
law  was  unfair  "class"  legislation  because  it  included  women 
working  in  factories  and  laundries  and  not  in  other  occupa- 
tions. In  a  more  recent  case  involving  the  Michigan  ten- 
hour  law  for  women*  the  law  was  attacked  as  "class"  legisla- 
tion because  a  different  class  of  workers  were  omitted.  In 
both  these  cases  the  courts  performed  a  great  service  by  up- 
holding and  reasserting  the  freedom  of  the  legislatures  to  use 
their  discretion  as  to  the  scope  of  the  laws.  "  If  all  laws  were 
held  unconstitutional  because  they  did  not  embrace  all 
persons,"  said  the  Illinois  court  (quoting  another  decision), 
"few  would  stand  the  test."     In  each  case  the  court  concluded 

*  Withey  V.  Bloem.  163  Mich.  419.  (1911). 
17  257 


FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 

that  the  law  was  not  "class"  legislation,  although  it  did 
single  out  those  workers  who  seemed  to  the  legislature  most 
in  need  of  protection.  The  Michigan  court  again  throws  the 
responsibility  for  the  scope  of  the  law  squarely  upon  the 
discretion  of  the  legislature,  quoting  with  approval  from 
Cooley's  Constitutional  Limitations  on  this  point,  "the 
legislature  must  judge."  The  law  cannot  be  called  uncon- 
stitutional because  "it  does  not  apply  to  all  callings." 

This  emphasis  upon  the  freedom  of  the  legislature  should 
be  welcome  to  all  lovers  of  democracy,  even  though  legis- 
latures, like  all  human  agencies,  may  err  and  prove  false  to 
their  trust. 

In  point  of  fact,  the  Michigan  ten-hour  law  which  was 
sustained  by  the  Michigan  Supreme  Court  contains  a  thor- 
oughly vicious  section.  It  excludes  from  the  protection  of 
the  law  all  women  "engaged  in  preserving  perishable  goods 
in  fruit  and  vegetable  canning  establishments."  This  ex- 
ception was  a  weak  concession  to  a  powerful  interest,  a 
yielding  to  undue  pressure.  Yet  only  a  doctrine  of  despair 
would  welcome  the  correction  of  such  legislative  failures 
through  the  agency  of  the  courts.  The  remedy  lies  not  in 
destroying  the  legislative  functions  and  handing  over  to  the 
courts  a  wider  jurisdiction  than  is  their  right.  It  lies  in 
raising  the  caliber  of  legislators  and  in  bringing  to  bear  upon 
the  legislatures  the  power  of  new  ideas,  which,  in  the  long  run, 
never  fails.  For  this  we  need,  primarily,  a  wider  study  and 
knowledge  of  those  fundamental  truths  which  are  the  bases 
of  our  protective  legislation,  and  which  these  chapters  have 
sought  briefly  to  set  forth. 


258 


X 

PROHIBITION    OF    WOMEN'S    NIGHT    WORK:     A 
PRIME  NECESSITY 

1.     THE  INTERNATIONAL  CONVENTION  ON  NIGHT  WORK 

AS  we  have  seen,  in  June,  1907,  the  New  York  Court  of 
/\  Appeals  by  a  unanimous  decision  struck  from  the 
1  V  statute  books  of  New  York  the  law  against  women's 
night  work,  one  of  the  four  state  laws  on  the  subject  at  that 
date  existent.*  Just  eight  months  before,  in  Berne,  Switzer- 
land, there  had  been  held  a  memorable  meeting,  attended  by 
official  delegates  from  14  European  nations.  This  was  the 
result  of  a  quarter  century's  effort,  a  new  move  in  labor 
legislation:  an  international  convention  of  the  Powers. 
The  subject  of  the  treaty  chosen,  according  to  Professor 
Raoul  Jay,  as  one  of  the  most  urgent,  most  important,  and 
most  easily  solved  of  labor  problems,  was  the  abolition  of 
women's  night  work. 

These  official  acts,  falling  within  the  same  twelve  months 
at  opposite  poles  from  one  another,  are  significant  of  the 
diametrically  opposed  mental  attitudes  prevalent  in  the 
United  States  and  in  Europe,  toward  the  same  phenomenon. 

Yet  the  employment  of  women  at  night  is  not  one  of  the 
subjects  legitimately  differentiated  in  a  democracy  and  under 
other  forms  of  government.  As  we  have  trod  the  same  path 
as  our  elder  kin  abroad  in  other  legislation  reducing  the 
length  of  the  workday,  we  shall  sooner  or  later  find  ourselves 
obliged  to  follow  their  action  in  regard  to  the  employment  of 
women  at  night.     But  whereas  abroad  the  prohibition  of 

*  These  states  were  Massachusetts,  New  York,  Indiana,  and  Nebraska. 
A  New  Jersey  statute  enacted  in  1892  which  prohibited  the  employment  of 
women  in  factories  between  6  p.  m.  and  7  a.  m.  was  held  repealed  by  a 
general  repealing  act  of  1904. 

259 


FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 

women's  night  work  has  gone  hand  in  hand  with  the  reduc- 
tion of  the  day's  work,  and  a  legal  closing  hour  has  been  found 
an  integral  part  of  effective  laws,  this  issue  has  been  for  the 
most  part  ignored  in  the  United  States.  The  lack  of  a  legal 
closing  hour  has  hampered  the  law  enforcement  in  all  but 
three  of  our  states. 

We  have  seen  that  England  prohibited  night  work  in 
her  first  factory  legislation  for  women  in  1844.  Almost  a 
generation  passed  before  any  other  European  state  took 
action.  In  1864,  the  Swiss  canton  of  Claris  followed  Eng- 
land's example  and  forbade  the  employment  of  women  at 
night  in  factories.  Ten  years  later  a  declaration  in  the  Swiss 
federal  constitution  authorized  the  regulation  of  the  hours  of 
labor  of  all  adults.  The  Swiss  federal  law  of  1877  which 
followed,  contained  a  clause  prohibiting  women's  night  work. 
Many  attempts  were  made  later,  from  time  to  time,  to  ob- 
tain overtime  privileges  for  various  industries,  but,  wrote  the 
eminent  Swiss  factory  inspector  Fridolin  Schuler  twenty- 
five  years  later,  "no  one  ever  dared  to  suggest  the  repeal  of 
the  night  work  law."  (Ces  dispositions  protectrices  n'ont 
jamais  ete  touchees  .  .  .  personne  n'osa  s'attaquer  au 
travail  de  nuit.)* 

The  prohibition  of  women's  night  work  had  been  intro- 
duced by  the  same  F.  Schuler  in  1887  to  a  wider  audience,  at 
the  International  Congress  of  Hygiene  and  Demography  at 
Vienna.  This  is  a  body  of  scientists  to  whose  work  we 
have  previously  referred,  who  have  met  at  regular  intervals 
abroad,  and  during  the  past  twenty  years  have  been  devoting 
their  attention  more  and  more  to  the  problems  of  industry  as 
well  as  of  pure  science. f 

*  Le  Travail  de  Nuit  des  Femmes  dans  I'lndustrie.  Rapports  sur  son 
importance  et  sa  reglementation  legale.  Preface  par  Prof.  Etienne  Bauer, 
Directeur  de  I'Office  Internal,  du  Travail.  Pp.  343-344.  Jena,  Fischer, 
1903.  This  book  contains  the  investigations  made  by  the  International  As- 
sociation for  Labor  Legislation  into  the  physical,  moral,  and  economic  aspects 
of  night  work.     It  has  been  taken  as  a  basis  for  this  chapter. 

t  In  this  connection  interest  attaches  to  the  first  meeting  of  this  Con- 
gress in  the  United  States,  which  is  to  take  place  in  Washington,  D.  C, 
September,  1912. 

260 


PROHIBITION    OF   NIGHT   WORK 

The  next  important  body  to  discuss  the  employment  of 
women  at  night  was  the  famous  International  Conference  on 
Labor  called  by  the  German  Emperor,  to  the  astonishment 
of  Europe,  in  March,  1890.  The  Swiss  federal  government 
had  been  promoting  international  labor  agreements  during 
the  eighties,  and  had  arranged  a  conference  to  be  held  in 
Berne  in  May,  1890,  when  the  Kaiser  issued  his  rescript 
calling  a  conference  in  Berlin  two  months  earlier.*  The 
rescript  was  in  some  respects  so  radical  that  to  many  persons 
it  stood  for  "state  socialism" — a  deliberate  move  to  forestall 
the  socialist  advance.  Whatever  its  underlying  objects,  the 
Berlin  Conference  resulted  in  no  binding  agreements,  but 
among  its  resolutions  concerning  the  employment  of  women 
and  children,  the  prohibition  of  night  work  was  recom- 
mended.f 

During  the  next  ten  years  the  subject  was  discussed  by 
other  international  meetings,  and  finally  the  International 
Association  for  Labor  Legislation  at  its  first  meeting  of  dele- 
gates in  1901,  determined  to  investigate  the  whole  field:  the 
extent  and  effects  of  women's  night  work  in  the  various 
countries,  and  the  actual  economic  results  of  prohibiting 
night  work  by  law.  A  year  later,  following  this  investiga- 
tion, the  association  appointed  a  commission  to  devise  means 
of  obtaining  a  general  international  prohibition  of  women's 
night  work,  and  the  gradual  reduction  of  evening  overtime 
exemptions.  (Le  Comite  national  charge  une  commission 
de  rechercher  les  moyens  d'introduire  cette  interdiction 
generale,  et  d'examiner  comment  les  exceptions  qui  existent 
encore  a  cette  interdiction  pourraient  etre  progressivement 
supprimees.)t 

After  a  year's  deliberation,  the  commission  recommended 
that  the  Federal  Council  of  Switzerland  be  asked  to  initiate 

*  Hutchins  and  Harrison,  op.  cit.,  p.  270. 

t  Seven  states  voted  affirmatively  on  this  question:  Germany,  Austria, 
Great  Britain,  The  Netherlands,  Sweden,  and  Switzerland.  Five  states 
voted  in  the  negative:  Hungary,  Belgium,  Spain,  Italy,  and  Portugal.  Three 
states  refused  to  vote:   Denmark,  France,  and  Norway. 

t  Bauer:  Preface  to  Le  Travail  de  Nuit  des  Femmes  dans  I'Industrie, 
op.  cit.,  p.  X. 

261 


FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 

an  international  convention  forbidding  women's  night  work 
in  industry.  The  commission  recommended  also  that  a 
memorial  be  sent  to  all  the  powers,  setting  forth  the  reasons 
for  desiring  such  an  international  convention,  which  should 
assure  to  women  who  work  outside  of  their  own  homes  an 
unbroken  period  of  twelve  hours'  rest  at  night,  certain  trades 
and  processes  being  exempted. 

Both  of  these  recommendations  were  carried  out.  In 
response  to  the  invitation  of  the  Swiss  Federal  Council  there 
assembled  at  Berne,  September  26,  1906,  representatives  of 
14  European  powers:  Austro-Hungary,  Belgium,  Denmark, 
France,  Germany,  Great  Britain,  Italy,  Luxemburg,  Portu- 
gal, Spain,  Sweden,  Switzerland,  and  the  Netherlands. 

An  international  agreement  was  submitted  to  the  Con- 
ference. It  bound  the  contracting  states  to  prohibit  the 
industrial  night  work  of  women  without  distinction  of  age. 
The  agreement  applied  to  all  industrial  establishments  em- 
ploying more  than  10  persons.  A  minimum  period  of  eleven 
consecutive  hours  was  set  for  the  duration  of  the  night  rest, 
to  include  the  time  between  10  p.  m.  and  5  a.  m.  in  all  cases. 
In  states  where  such  legislation  had  not  previously  existed, 
the  period  of  uninterrupted  night  rest  might  be  temporarily 
reduced  to  ten  instead  of  eleven  hours,  during  a  period  of 
three  years.* 

Only  two  exceptions  permitting  night  work  were  pro- 
vided. First,  in  case  of  "force  majeure,"  or  the  interrup- 
tion of  work  by  causes  beyond  the  employer's  control,  often 
known  as  the  "Act  of  God";  second,  to  save  raw  material  or 
material  in  course  of  manufacture,  liable  to  rapid  deteriora- 
tion. No  other  concessions  were  made  to  the  seasonal  in- 
dustries, ever  insistent  for  special  privilege.  They  were  not 
exempted  from  the  prohibition  of  night  work.  A  slight 
modification  in  their  favor  was  permission  to  reduce  the 
length  of  the  night  rest  from  eleven  to  ten  hours  during  sixty 
days  in  the  year. 

*The  line  dividing  industry  from  commerce  and  agriculture  was  left 
for  each  country  to  define. 

262 


PROHIBITION    OF    NIGHT   WORK 

The  participating  states  were  required  to  ratify  this 
convention,  to  file  their  ratifications  with  the  Swiss  Federal 
Council  within  a  specified  time,  and  to  adopt  administrative 
measures  for  carrying  out  the  terms  of  the  agreement.  It  was 
to  go  into  effect  two  years  after  ratification. 

By  January  14,  1910,  all  the  participating  states,  ex- 
cepting Spain  and  Denmark,  had  ratified  the  convention.* 
In  accordance  with  a  special  article,  the  French  government 
had  notified  the  Swiss  Council  that  the  terms  of  the  agree- 
ment were  accepted  for  Algiers  and  Tunis.  Similar  notice 
was  given  b\'  the  British  government  for  Gibraltar,  the  Gold 
Coast,  North  Nigeria,  Uganda,  Ceylon,  New  Zealand,  Fiji 
Islands,  Leeward  Islands,  and  Trinidad. f  Comic  as  it  may 
appear  at  this  date  to  legislate  for  the  South  Seas  and  for  the 
Africa  of  romance  and  adventure,  yet  bitter  experience  has 
taught  the  wisdom  of  so  legislating  before  industry  is  present. t 

Moreover,  the  night  work  treaty  must  be  regarded  as  an 
instrument  of  value  far  beyond  its  own  intrinsic  worth.  It 
marks  a  new  era  in  labor  legislation.  For  the  first  time  the 
powers  have  treated  on  a  plane  with  staples  of  commercial 
value,  as  legitimate  subjects  of  international  agreement  and 
treaty,  such  hitherto  neglected  assets  as  the  health  and  wel- 
fare of  wage-earners. 

The  effect  of  the  treaty  in  modifying  previous  laws  may 
be  illustrated  by  some  of  the  amendments  of  the  German  In- 
dustrial Code  in  1908,  seventeen  years  after  the  first  effective 
German  law  governing  women's  hours  of  labor  had  been  en- 
acted in  1891,  following  the  International  Conference  of  1890. 
This  first  law  had  copied  the  British  model  in  prohibiting  work 
at  night  between  specified  hours,  as  well  as  prohibiting  more 

*  Bulletin  of  the  International  Labour  Office.  English  edition.  Vol. 
I,  1906,  p.  272.  The  original  limit  set  for  the  ratifications  was  December 
31,  1908;  postponed  to  January  14,  1910. 

Additional  leeway  of  ten  years  before  enforcement  is  granted  the 
following  industries:  first,  the  manufacture  of  unrefined  beet  sugar;  second, 
woolcombing  and  weaving;  third,  open  mining  operations  wfien  climatic 
conditions  stop  operations  at  least  four  months  in  the  year. 

t  ibid.  Vol.  VI,  1911,  p.  11. 

X  Bills  are  pending  in  Spain  and  Denmark  (March,  1912). 
263 


FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 

than  a  specified  number  of  hours  by  day.  The  employment 
of  women  was  forbidden  between  8:30  p.  m.  and  5:30  a.  m. 
and  after  5:30  p.  m.  on  Saturdays  and  days  preceding  holi- 
days. By  the  amendment  of  December,  1908,*  among  other 
changes,  the  period  of  night  rest  was  lengthened  one  hour, 
work  being  prohibited  from  8  p.  m.  to  6  a.  m.  and  after  5  p.  m. 
on  Saturdays.  At  the  termination  of  the  workday,  an  un- 
interrupted period  of  at  least  eleven  hours  of  rest  was  re- 
quired. 

Such  are  the  general  provisions.  Many  exemptions  for 
overtime  may  be  granted,  for  various  reasons  and  varying 
lengths  of  time,  by  the  German  Federal  Council  and  by  the 
higher  or  lower  administrative  authorities.  But  the  amend- 
ment of  1908  reduced  the  range  of  many  of  these  exemp- 
tions, and  required  the  establishment  of  a  closing  hour  in  cases 
where  it  had  not  previously  been  required. 

Thus  one  section  of  the  complex  German  Code  gives 
special  powers  to  the  Federal  Council  in  regard  to  women's 
hours  of  labor.  For  instance,  in  industries  where  there  is 
seasonal  pressure  of  work  the  Federal  Council  may  grant 
exemptions  forty  times  during  the  year,  but  the  daily  period 
of  work  must  not  exceed  twelve  hours  nor  eight  hours  on 
Saturday. 

Previous  to  1908  there  was  no  fixed  closing  hour  for  such 
exemptions.  The  amendment  of  that  year  specified  that 
the  period  of  rest  following  the  workday  must  amount  to  at 
least  ten  consecutive  hours  and  must  include  the  time  be- 
tween 10  p.  m.  and  5  a.  m.f 

Again,  in  cases  of  exceptional  accumulation  of  work, 
overtime  may  be  granted  by  the  lower  and  higher  adminis- 
trative authorities  a  fixed  number  of  times  during  the  year. 
Previous  to  1908  such  overtime  was  allowed  until  10  p.  m. 
and  a  workday  of  thirteen  hours  was  permitted.     The  amend- 

*  German  Industrial  Code,  Section  137.  Bulletin  of  the  Interna- 
tional Labour  Office.     English  edition,  1908,  p.  335. 

t  German  Industrial  Code,  Section  139  a.  Bulletin  of  the  Interna- 
tional Labour  Office.     English  edition,  1908,  pp.  337  and  338. 

264 


PROHIBITION   OF   NIGHT  WORK 


inent  of  1908  limited  such  overtime  to  twelve  hours  in  the 
day,  changing  the  closing  hour  from  10  to  9  p.  m.,  and  re- 
quired that  the  daily  period  of  rest  must  be  not  less  than  ten 
hours.* 


2.    THE  CASE  AGAINST  NIGHT  WORK  ABROAD 

The  investigations  which  preceded  the  Berne  Conven- 
tion dealt  with  the  physical,  economic,  and  administrative 
aspects  of  night  work.  The  employment  of  women  at  night 
was  scrutinized  by  physicians,  economists,  and  specialists  in 
labor  enforcement,  and  was  found  in  the  first  place  unmis- 
takably dangerous  to  health.  For  all  night  work,  whether 
it  be  carried  on  regularly  in  night  shifts  or  irregularly  in  the 
evenings,  has  certain  characteristic  and  unavoidable  effects. 
Of  these  the  most  obvious  are  the  loss  of  sleep  and  sunlight, 
and  the  hygienic  argument  against  night  work  centers  upon 
the  inevitable  physiological  deficits  due  to  this  lack  of  sleep 
and  sunlight. 

We  have  seen,  in  a  previous  chapter,  that  during  work 
the  chemical  products  of  activity  increase.  The  internal 
combustion  is  more  active.  In  the  famous  experiment  of 
the  physiologists  Voit  and  Pettenkoffer,  a  man  was  shown 
to  expire  almost  twice  as  much  carbon  dioxide  during  a  day 
of  work  as  during  a  day  of  rest.  But  during  rest  at  night  the 
processes  of  tissue  repair  are  in  the  ascendant.  This  is  one 
of  the  reasons  why  loss  of  sleep  is  so  detrimental  to  the  organ- 
ism. This  is  also  the  reason  why  all  forms  of  night  work, 
inevitably  resulting  in  loss  of  sleep,  are  in  the  long  run  bound 
to  be  injurious. 

Besides  loss  of  sleep  and  rest,  another  characteristic 
of  both  night  work  and  evening  overtime  is  the  loss  of  sun- 
light. Sunlight  appears  to  benefit  all  our  bodily  functions. 
It  stimulates  growth  and  assists  in  the  elimination  of  toxic 
wastes.  Loss  of  sunlight  therefore  reacts  disastrously. 
Animal  experimentation  shows  that  the  blood  of  animals 

*  Ibid.,  p.  336. 
265 


FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 

kept  in  the  dark  suffers  a  loss  of  the  red  coloring  matter. 
Investigation  among  night  workers  also  shows  the  ill  effects 
resulting  from  the  lack  of  sunshine  in  impoverished  blood: 
the  term  "baker's  anaemia"  tells  its  own  story.* 

More  than  twenty  years  ago  the  German  factory  in- 
spectors found  a  marked  excess  of  in  illness  among  night 
workers,  as  compared  with  day  workers  in  similar  occupa- 
tions, even  though  the  hours  of  labor  at  night  were  shorter 
than  by  day.f  The  French  commission  of  1890,  which  in- 
vestigated the  industrial  employment  of  girls  and  women  in 
France  before  the  first  effective  French  law  of  1892,  reported 
especially  on  the  injuries  to  childbirth,  and  the  high  infant 
mortality  among  women  employed  on  night  shifts. J  Physi- 
cians as  well  as  factory  inspectors  of  all  nations  agree  that 
after  a  shorter  or  longer  period,  women  habitually  employed 
at  night  suffer  from  all  those  symptoms  which  betoken  low- 
ered vitality:  loss  of  appetite,  headache,  anaemia,  and  weak- 
ness of  the  female  functions. 

Dr.  L.  Carozzi,  in  a  more  recent  limited  but  intensive 
study  of  night  workers  in  an  Italian  spinning  mill,  bears  out 
the  testimony  of  earlier  investigators.  The  night  workers 
whom  he  examined  all  showed  marked  signs  of  anaemia  and 
general  debility.  He  found  among  them  a  "continual  sense 
of  fatigue,  of  heaviness,  breakage,  of  exhaustion — in  a  word  a 
sense  of  chronic  tire,  which  weighs  upon  the  workers  and 
undermines  their  lives."  § 

The  injury  to  health  from  night  work  is  the  greater  be- 

*  Wiener  klinisch-therapeutische  Wochenschrift.  Vol.  XIII.  Nr.  27, 
1906.  Gardenghi,  Dr.  G.  F.  (Director  of  the  Institute  of  Hygiene,  Parma): 
Veranderungen  des  Blutes  durch  Nacht  Arbeit. 

Ibid.,  No.  28,  1906. 

Proceedings  of  the  First  International  Congress  on  Industrial  Diseases. 
Milan,  June,  1906.  Boiettino,  Dr.  L.  (Lecco):  Sull'  Influenza  della  Luce 
Naturaie  nei  Lavoro,  p.  100. 

t  Amtliche  Mittheilungen  aus  den  Jahres-Berichten  der  mit  Beauf- 
sichtigung  der  Fabriken  Betrauten  Beamten,  1889,  p.  93. 

X  Documents  Pariementaires.  Chambre  des  Deputes,  10  Juin,  1890. 
Annexe  649.  Waddington,  M.  R.:  Rapport  fait  sur  le  travail  des  enfants, 
des  fiiles  mineures,  et  des  femmes,  etc.,  p.  1088. 

§  Carozzi,  Dr.  Luigi:  I  Danni  del  Lavoro  Notturno.  Lavoro.  Vol. 
III.     Milan,  1905. 

266 


PROHIBITION    OF    NIGHT    WORK 

cause  sleep  lost  at  night  by  wage-earners  can  rarely  be  made 
good  in  the  daytime.  In  the  first  place,  for  reasons  not  well 
understood,  sleep  in  the  daytime  appears  to  be  generally  less 
restorative  than  by  night.  It  is  less  potent  to  accomplish 
its  office  of  repair  and  refreshment. 

But  even  if  day  sleep  could  habitually  compensate  for 
the  inversion  of  nature's  order,  it  is  not  within  the  wage- 
earner's  reach.  Quiet  and  privacy  for  sleep  by  day  are 
unattainable  luxuries.  Upon  returning  home  in  the  middle 
of  the  night  or  at  dawn,  the  workers  can  snatch  at  most  a 
few  insufficient  hours  of  rest.  Women  who  work  at  night 
fare  particularly  ill.  Those  who  are  married  cannot  post- 
pone the  regular  household  necessities  which  await  them  in 
the  morning,  such  as  cooking  breakfast,  dressing  and  caring 
for  the  children,  and  the  like.  Unmarried  women,  too, 
whether  they  live  at  home  or  are  thrown  upon  their  own 
resources,  can  rarely  avoid  a  certain  amount  of  household 
work,  which  combines  with  the  lack  of  quiet  to  make  im- 
possible adequate  sleep  by  day  after  night  work. 

In  thus  destroying  home  life,  night  work  militates  against 
morals  as  well  as  against  health.  Clearly,  no  form  of  women's 
work  so  interferes  with  their  domestic  relations  as  enforced 
absence  from  home  in  the  evenings,  the  only  time  when  wage- 
earning  families  are  together.  Young  women  who  work  at 
night  are  deprived  of  all  the  restraining  influences  of  home 
life.  When  the  mother  of  a  family  spends  the  night  or  even- 
ing in  work,  disorder  is  almost  unavoidable,  and  the  comfort 
of  the  men  as  well  as  of  the  children  dependent  upon  her 
ministrations,  is  lost. 

These,  then,  were  some  of  the  hygienic  and  moral  ob- 
jections to  night  work  found  in  actual  experience  abroad. 
The  advocates  for  prohibition  next  examined  its  economic 
value.  They  found  a  consensus  of  opinion  that  wherever 
night  work  had  been  abolished  long  enough  for  industry  to 
adjust  itself  to  the  change,  prosperity  had  not  suffered.  This 
was  because,  in  a  word,  night  work  is  inferior  to  day  work. 
Output  deteriorates  in  both  quality  and  quantity.     Defects 

267 


FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 

occur  more  easily  at  night,  and  more  easily  escape  detection. 
In  weaving  and  in  industries  where  colors  must  be  distin- 
guished, work  by  artificial  light  is  never  satisfactory.  The 
profits  of  plants  running  uninterruptedly  day  and  night  are 
reduced  by  the  wear  and  tear  on  equipment  and  the  increased 
running  expenses.  But  chief  of  all,  they  are  reduced  by  the 
impaired  efficiency  of  the  workers.  Just  as  after  a  limited 
period  of  overtime,  efficiency  steadily  declines,  so  after  night 
work  the  workers  tend  to  deteriorate.  Many  mill  owners 
stated  to  the  investigators  who  preceded  the  Berne  Conven- 
tion that  in  the  long  run  night  work  had  proved  financially 
unsuccessful. 

Hence,  as  we  have  seen,  the  margins  of  overtime  have 
been  gradually  reduced,  and  the  laws  against  night  work, 
first  bitterly  opposed  in  most  countries,  are  being  gradually 
accepted.  The  Dutch  factory  inspector's  account  of  the 
gradual  acceptance  of  the  night-work  law  by  the  proprietors 
of  the  laundries  in  Holland  is  especially  interesting.*  A 
tempest  of  indignation  was  aroused,  wrote  T.  H.  Van 
Thienen,  by  the  Dutch  law  of  1889,  which  prohibited  work 
after  7  p.  m.  in  laundries  using  motor  power.  It  was  called, 
as  all  regulation  is  first  called,  the  ruin  of  the  industry  (la 
ruine  de  leur  profession).  To  abandon  the  traditional  modes 
of  work,  to  change  the  hours  of  the  arrival  and  delivery  of 
linen,  to  interfere  with  the  workers'  irregular  habits  (I'habi- 
tude  de  se  lever  tard  et  de  se  mettre  tard  a  I'ouvrage) — all 
this  aroused  the  resentment  of  employers,  accustomed  to  keep 
their  establishments  open  until  late  at  night.  But,  accord- 
ing to  Van  Thienen,  most  of  these  fears  were  imaginary 
(n'existaient  que  dans  I'imagination),  and  proved  to  be 
groundless  when  work  was  reorganized  so  as  to  end  at  7  p.  m. 
as  required  by  the  statute.  He  reported  that  the  law  still 
needed  careful  watching  (une  surveillance  rigoureuse)  in 
1903,  twelve  years  after  it  had  been  enacted,  but  concluded 
that  the  results  of  prohibiting  night  work  had  been  "ex- 
tremely favorable." 

*Le  Travail  de  Nuit  des  Femmes  dans  I'lndustrie.     Op.  cit.,  p.  304  ff. 

268 


PROHIBITION    OF   NIGHT   WORK 

This  account  is  typical  of  tiie  evidence  as  to  the  operation 
of  night-work  prohibitions,  contained  in  the  official  reports  of 
the  International  Labour  Office.  The  evidence  all  tended  to 
prove  that  the  prohibition  of  night  work,  like  the  reduction 
of  day  work,  was  in  the  long  run  a  benefit  to  industry,  it 
contributed  to  raise  the  efficiency  both  of  the  management 
and  of  the  employes. 

3.     NIGHT  WORK  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES 

In  contrast  now  to  the  Berne  Convention  of  1906  and  the 
legislation  of  European  states  bringing  their  laws  into  con- 
formity with  its  terms,  the  status  of  women's  night  work  in 
the  United  States  is  a  cause  for  deep  concern. 

We  have  seen  that  the  New  York  Court  of  Appeals 
failed  to  apprehend  its  true  significance.  But  more  unfor- 
tunate than  this  decision  (for  there  is  good  reason  to  believe 
that  the  court  might  take  a  different  view  if  the  real  issues 
were  more  clearly  brought  to  its  attention) — more  unfortu- 
nate than  the  court's  decision,  is  the  widespread  public  indif- 
ference in  regard  to  the  practice  of  working  women  at  night. 

The  United  States  was  not  able  to  take  part  officially 
in  the  Berne  Convention,  since  the  federal  government  can- 
not bind  the  individual  states  to  enact  legislation  restricting 
hours  of  labor.  But  far  from  aiming  at  the  same  goal, — pro- 
hibition of  night  work,  of  their  own  initiative, — American 
states  are  drifting  in  a  precisely  opposite  direction. 

While  all  the  civilized  (and  some  uncivilized)  nations  of 
the  world  are  abolishing  work  at  night,  and  cutting  down  the 
margins  of  overtime,  American  states  are  for  the  first  time 
granting  special  overtime  privileges  to  one  great  industry — 
canning — and  are  deliberately  recognizing  the  employment 
of  women  on  night  shifts.  The  legislature  of  the  enlightened 
state  of  Wisconsin  in  1911  enacted  its  first  effective  law  limit- 
ing the  working  hours  of  adult  women,*  and  in  the  same 

*  The  early  Wisconsin  law  of  1867  was  not  enforceable,  since  it  pre- 
scribed a  penalty  only  for  employers  who  compelled  women  to  work  more  than 
ten  hours  in  one  day. 

269 


FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 

Statute  it  legalized  an  eight-hour  night  shift  for  women  be- 
tween 8  p.  m.  and  6  a.  m.  This  provision  requires  that  work 
at  night  be  two  hours  less  than  the  legal  day's  work,  but  it 
is  none  the  less  true  that  this  law  specifically  authorizes  the 
emploN'ment  of  women  during  that  period  of  the  night  set 
apart  by  the  Berne  Convention  as  a  minimum  time  for  rest. 

Connecticut  passed  a  law  similar  to  that  of  Wisconsin 
in  1908,  and  bills  containing  similar  provisions  were  intro- 
duced in  Maryland  and  New  Jersey  in  1912.*  No  other 
states  have  specifically  legalized  night  work  for  women, 
but  such  work  is  permissible,  because  not  prohibited,  in 
all  other  American  states  excepting  three — Massachusetts, 
Indiana,  and  Nebraska. 

The  forces  which  make  for  night  work, — accepting  the 
enactment  of  such  legislation  as  in  Wisconsin,  defeating 
bills  aimed  to  prohibit  night  work  in  other  states, — may  be 
gauged  by  their  activities  during  the  sessions  of  1911. 

Legislatures  sat  in  40  states.  In  most  of  these  states 
some  bill  was  introduced  affecting  women's  conditions  of 
labor.  So  unpopular  and  so  little  regarded  was  the  prohibi- 
tion of  night  work  that  in  only  two  states — Delaware  and 
New  Jersey — besides  the  District  of  Columbia,  were  attempts 
made  to  include  a  legal  closing  hour  in  the  proposed  legisla- 
tion. These  three  bills  all  failed  to  become  laws,t  and  while 
this  fact  is  not  in  itself  conclusive, — for  many  bills  failed  in 
other  states, — it  is  significant  that  these  bills  had  admittedly  no 
chance  of  passage  until  the  closing  hour  had  been  eliminated. 

In  Delaware,  for  instance,  the  original  bill  prohibited  all 
night  work  after  10  p.  m.  After  many  deliberations  and 
efforts  at  persuasion  the  bill  emerged  from  conference, 
shorn  almost  beyond  recognition.  The  following  places  of 
employment  had  been  specially  allowed  to  employ  women 
without  restraint  at  night:  laundries,  canneries,  the  telephone 
service,  restaurants,  candy  stores,  ice  cream  saloons,  and 

*  Enacted  in  Maryland,  March,  1912. 

t  The  Delaware  bill  was  passed  with  amendments,  but  Gov.  Pennewill 
failed  to  sign  it. 

!  270 


PROHIBITION    OF  NIGHT  WORK 

Stores  between  December  Uth  and  25th — all  those  places  in 
which  the  employment  of  women  at  night  is  an  entrenched 
custom.  Where  night  work  is  not  customary  or  is  not  at 
present  needed,  its  prohibition  was  not  opposed. 

Thus  the  special  interests  which  desire  to  employ  women 
at  night  are  awake  and  untiring;  public  appreciation  of  the 
issue  is  dead  or  not  yet  born.  Hence,  in  the  United  States 
today,  legislation  restraining  employers  from  requiring  women 
to  work  at  night  is  the  most  difficult  to  secure,  though  the 
reduction  of  the  day's  work  gains  ground  each  year. 

So  little  has  the  subject  been  regarded  that  we  do  not 
even  know  the  extent  of  this  dangerous  form  of  employment, 
sprung  up  almost  like  the  armies  of  Cadmus,  overnight.  We 
do  know  that  the  custom  of  evening  overtime,  extending  to 
late  evening  hours,  is  prevalent  in  most  industries  to  a  de- 
gree unsuspected  by  most  persons. 

Reference  has  already  been  made  to  the  appalling  dura- 
tion of  night  work  found  by  the  federal  investigators  in  a  very 
limited  study  of  binderies  in  New  York  City.  Of  13  women 
who  worked  on  night  shifts  in  such  establishments, the  hours 
of  four  girls  are  specifically  stated.  They  were  employed 
respectively  16><,  20^,  11)^  and  24^  hours  once  and  some- 
times twice  a  week,  during  a  long  period  of  the  year,  that 
is,  from  four  to  almost  seven  months.  The  girl  whose  rec- 
ord of  hours  was  most  appalling  worked  24>^  hours  twice 
in  21  weeks.     Her  usual  long  day  was  20>^  hours.* 

Official  reports  of  the  outrageous  duration  of  night  work 
in  laundries  are  also  available.  An  inquiry  into  the  causes  of 
a  strike  of  laundry  employes  in  New  York  City  was  conducted 
in  February,  1912,  by  the  Bureau  of  Arbitration  of  the  New 
York  State  Department  of  Labor.  At  public  hearings,  em- 
ployes testified  under  oath  as  to  their  hours  of  labor.  It  ap- 
peared that  work  until  1  a.  m.  was  on  occasions  not  unknown, 
and  that  work  until  midnight  was  more  often  found  to  exist. 

*  Report  on  Condition  of  Woman  and  Child  Wage-Earners  in  the 
United  States.  Vol.  V,  p.  205.  Senate  Document  No.  645,  61st  Congress, 
2d  Session.  1911. 

271 


FATIGUE   AND    EFFICIENCY 

The  three  following  schedules  of  "long  weeks"  reported  in 
the  stenographic  minutes  of  evidence,*  though  they  need  not 
be  regarded  as  typical,  illustrate  to  what  extremes  the  night 
work  of  women  in  laundries  is  carried,  when  there  is  no  legal 
closing  hour  for  work. 

SOME    INSTANCES   OF   EXTREMELY   LONG   HOURS    IN    NEW 
YORK   LAUNDRIES 


Day  of  week 


Monday.  .  . 
Tuesday.  . 
Wednesday 
Thursday.  . 
Friday.  .  .  . 
Saturday. . 


Woman  who  has 

worked  2  years 

in  laundries 


l.M.        P.M. 

n-n 

9-  11:30 
9-    9:30 
9-    7 
9-    6:30 


Woman  who  has  •  Woman  who  has 


worked  5  years 
in  laundries 


A.M.        P.M. 

12-  12 
9-  11:30 
9-9 
9-    7 
9-    6 


worked  11  years 
in  laundries 


A.M.        P.M. 

?  -    9a 
9-11 
9-    8 
9-    7:30 
9-    6 


a  Sometimes  until  10  p.  m.  or  later.     Latest  1  a.  m. 


We  know  also  that  in  one  great  occupation — the  tele- 
phone service — a  host  of  girls  and  women  are  regularly  em- 
ployed at  night  and  all  night,  where  only  a  few  years  ago  the 
night  service  was  performed  by  men  and  boys.  It  is  true 
that  the  telephone  companies  find  it  necessary  to  make  better 
provision  for  the  comfort  and  safety  of  their  night  workers 
than  other  employers.  Rest  rooms  are  provided,  and  the 
night  shift  is  not  exposed  to  the  objectionable  late  return 
home,  being  kept  on  duty  almost  invariably  from  10  p.  m. 
to  5  or  6  o'clock  in  the  morning.  But  the  fundamental 
physiological  objections  to  night  work  remain  the  same: 
the  workers'  lack  of  sleep  and  sunlight;  their  inability  to 
make  up  adequate  sleep  by  day.  The  shifting  army  of  "  tele- 
phone girls"  keeps  changing;   often  the  service  holds  them 


*  Not  yet  published  at  date  of  writing. 
the  New  York  Commissioner  of  Labor. 

272 


Reproduced  by  courtesy  of 


PROHIBITION    OF    NIGHT   WORK 

less  than  two  years,  a  trade  life  of  extraordinary  brevity*; 
and  no  one  is  the  wiser  as  to  the  effects  upon  them  of  this 
exacting  occupation,  of  which  night  work  is  a  regular  incident. 

The  recent  federal  investigation  of  wage-earning  women 
and  children  gives  little  more  than  sidelights  and  hints  as  to  the 
extent  and  effects  of  employment  at  night.  But  even  these 
scattered  data  are  all  in  accord  with  the  facts  as  to  health, 
morals,  and  efficiency  found  earlier  by  the  European  in- 
vestigators. 

In  the  investigation  of  the  cotton  textile  industry,  mills 
were  found  operating  at  night  in  North  and  South  Carolina. f 
According  to  the  Census  t  there  were,  in  1908,  293  cotton  mills 
in  North  Carolina;  59  of  these  were  covered  by  the  investiga- 
tion. Thirty-one  mills  operated  by  night,  not  counting  two 
which  had  discontinued  night  shifts  during  the  year.  The 
number  of  women  and  children  under  sixteen  years  employed 
on  night  shifts  was  848,  nearly  equalling  the  number  of  men, 
874,  employed  at  night.  In  South  Carolina,  the  investiga- 
tion covered  36  of  the  existing  150  cotton  mills.  Five  mills 
were  found  operating  at  night;  188  women  and  children 
under  sixteen  years  were  employed,  and  155  men. 

The  agents  of  the  government  visited  workers  who  were 
employed  in  North  Carolina  cotton  mills  during  the  twelve 
hours  from  six  in  the  evening  until  six  in  the  morning.  At 
eleven  o'clock  in  the  morning  they  were  sitting  drowsily 
over  scant  fires,  too  listless  to  seek  sleep.  When  they  did 
lie  down,  the  inevitable  noises  in  thinly  partitioned  wooden 
houses,  where  every  sound  can  be  heard  from  room  to  room, 
made  sound  sleep  impossible.     "  Usually  they  arose  at  four 

*  The  Railroad  Commission  of  Wisconsin  found  that  in  seven  large 
exchanges  of  the  Wisconsin  Telephone  Co.  in  Milwaukee,  290  operators  were 
employed  on  Jan.  15,  1907,  with  22.72  months'  average  length  of  service; 
on  Jan.  15,  1908,  407  operators  were  employed  with  18.52  months'  average 
length  of  service.  Senate  Document  No.  390.  Investigation  of  Telephone 
Companies,  p.  51. 

t  Report  on  Condition  of  Woman  and  Child  Wage-Earners  in  the 
United  States,  Vol.  I,  Cotton  Textile  industry,  p.  284.  Senate  Document 
No.  645,  61st  Congress,  2d  Session,  1910. 

t  Census  Bulletin  No.  97,  1908,  p.  10. 
i8  273 


FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 

or  five  in  the  afternoon  and  again  took  their  seats  before  the 
fire,  too  weary  and  sluggish  to  think  of  a  walk  in  the  open 
air."* 

Shocking  abuses  were  found  by  the  investigation,  in 
connection  with  night  work  in  two  small  mills  in  North 
Carolina.  While  these  cases  are  not  cited  as  typical,  they 
are  given  "  to  show  the  extremes  to  which  unregulated  labor 
of  women  and  children  can  go  in  the  absence  of  legal  regula- 
tion or  of  efficient  means  of  enforcement."! 

In  one  of  these  mills  it  was  common  for  night  workers 
who  had  worked  all  Friday  night  to  continue  until  3:30 
o'clock  on  Saturday  afternoon,  "working  approximately 
twenty  and  one-half  out  of  twenty-one  and  one-half  consecu- 
tive hours."  The  day  workers  were  "frequently  requested 
to  return  to  the  mill  immediately  after  supper  and  work  until 
midnight,  and  frequently  some  one  was  sent  to  the  homes  of 
employes  early  in  the  evening  or  at  midnight  to  request  day 
workers  to  come  and  work  half  the  night.  Some  employes 
usually  declined  to  do  overtime  work.  Others  worked 
alternate  nights  as  a  regular  custom." 

Among  those  who  thus  worked  at  night  after  and  in 
addition  to  a  twelve-hour  day,  was  a  family  of  five  children, 
consisting  of  three  boys,  aged  ten,  fifteen  and  seventeen 
years,  and  two  little  girls  of  eleven  and  thirteen  years.  Their 
names  were  entered  upon  both  the  day  roll  and  the  night 
roll  of  the  mill. 

"It  was  found,"  says  the  report,  "that  during  a  con- 
siderable part  of  the  eight  months  that  this  family  had  been 
at  this  mill,  these  children  had  worked  two  or  three  half 
nights  each  week,  in  addition  to  day  work.  After  working 
from  6  a.  m.  to  6  p.  m.  with  35  minutes  for  dinner,  they  had 
returned  to  the  mill  usually  every  other  night  immediately 
after  supper,  and  worked  until  midnight,  when  they  went 
home  for  four  or  five  hours  of  sleep  before  beginning  the 
next  day's  work;  or,  they  had  been  aroused  at  midnight  and 
sent  to  the  mill  for  the  second  half  of  the  night,  where  they 

♦Senate  Document,  No.  645,  Op.  cit.  Vol.  I,  p.  289. 
t  Ibid.     Vol.  1,  pp.  290-291. 
I  274 


PROHIBITION    OF   NIGHT   WORK 

remained  until  six  o'clock  the  following  afternoon,  except 
when  eating  breakfast  and  dinner.  In  either  case,  they  were 
on  duty  for  a  working  day  of  seventeen  hours,  with  no  rest 
period  save  for  meals.  Those  who  worked  the  second  half 
of  the  night  went  home  for  a  hurried  breakfast  just  before 
6  a.  m. 

"The  father  of  the  family  was  apparently  an  active, 
hardworking  man.  He  expressed  the  opinion  that  night 
work  in  addition  to  day  work  was  rather  hard  on  the  children, 
but  said  that  he  was  trying  to  get  money  to  buy  a  home. 
.     .     .     No  member  of  this  family  could  read  or  write." 

The  government  agents  found  the  homes  of  many  night 
workers  as  dismal  and  neglected  as  similar  homes  were  found 
by  investigators  abroad.  In  several  cases  when  both  parents 
worked  on  night  shifts,  the  children  came  to  the  mill  to  sleep 
on  boxes  and  rolls  of  cotton, — pitiable  drifts  and  strays  de- 
prived of  anchorage.*  Or  when  the  mother  of  a  family 
worked  on  a  night  shift  and  also  attended  to  her  home  duties, 
including  the  weekly  washing  and  ironing,  she  had  to  spend 
"one  day  at  least  .  .  .  from  18  to  24  hours  without 
sleeping." 

Of  the  moral  degeneration  due  to  night  work,  the  govern- 
ment report  on  the  glass  industry  gives  lurid  instances.! 
Women's  work  in  glass  making  is  confined  for  the  most  part 
to  the  finishing  department  and  to  the  lehr-room,  where  glass- 
ware is  removed  from  the  lehr  or  annealing-oven  in  which  it 
has  been  slowly  cooled  after  firing.  In  four  factories,  how- 
ever, negro  women  are  employed  as  substitutes  for  boys  in 
the  furnace  rooms.  Here,  during  the  night  shift  and  at  dawn 
when  work  stops,  are  found  at  their  worst  the  coarseness  and 
immoralities  resulting  from  the  close  association  at  night,  of 
men  and  women  hardened  by  the  most  exhausting  and  hot- 
test labor. 

If  the  character  of  these  poor  negro  women  in  the  glass- 
houses be  held  responsible  for  the  excesses  of  the  night  shift 
and  the  perils  of  their  lonely  return  home,  what  shall  be  said 

*  Ibid.     Vol.  I,  pp.  289  and  293. 

t  Ibid.     Vol.  111.     The  Glass  Industry,  p.  177  ff. 

275 


FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 

of  the  similar  perils  and  alarms  of  refined  women  employed 
in  night  restaurants,  whose  return  home  at  midnight  or 
thereabouts  is  compulsory?  Can  there  be  any  doubt  that 
such  a  necessity  is  unworthy  of  any  community  calling  itself 
civilized?* 

Such,  then,  are  some  of  the  documentary  evidences, 
though  insufficient  and  merely  suggestive  of  the  existing 
night  work  of  women.  If  we  turn  now  to  our  fragmentary 
data  as  to  the  economic  value  of  night  work,  it  seems  also 
to  corroborate  European  experience.  Just  as  the  silk  mill 
owners  of  the  Vosges  and  Rhone  found  weaving  by  artificial 
light  unsatisfactory,  so  it  is  beginning  to  be  found  in  the  silk 
centers  of  America. f  Just  as  night  work  was  abandoned 
by  many  European  employers  because  of  its  lesser  pro- 
ductivity and  the  decreased  efficiency  of  their  workers,  so, 
says  a  recent  publication  of  the  South  Carolina  Department 
of  Agriculture,  Commerce  and  Immigration,  night  work 
"seems  to  be  generally  regarded  as  a  losing  proposition."! 

Cotton  mill  owners  in  North  Carolina  who  had  volun- 
tarily discontinued  night  work  and  were  therefore  disin- 
terested witnesses,  were  unanimous  in  declaring  to  the  govern- 
ment investigators  that 

"it  did  not  pay.  They  asserted  that,  as  a  rule,  they 
could  induce  only  an  inferior  class  of  employes  to  work  on  the 
night  shifts,  with  a  constant  lowering  in  the  quality  of  prod- 
uct, while  at  the  same  time  a  higher  rate  of  wages  than  usual 
was  required  to  secure  even  this  class  of  help;  that  continu- 
ous operation  resulted  in  more  than  ordinary  'wear  and 
tear'  on  machinery,  and  that  there  was  a  disposition  to  neg- 
lect the  care  of  machinery  when  used  jointly  by  two  shifts. 
The  manager  of  a  mill  in  Georgia,  which  had  carried  on  night 
work  for  a  year  and  abandoned  it,  expressed  the  feeling  tersely 
by  saying,  '  It  was  hard  on  the  people  and  hard  on  the  ma- 
chinery.'" § 

*  Ibid.     Vol.  V.     Wage-Earning  Women  in  Stores  and  Factories,  p.  75. 
t  Ibid.     Vol.  IV.     The  Silk  Industry,  p.  143. 

t  The   Cotton   Mills  of   South   Carolina.     Published   by   the   South 
Carolina  Department  of  Agriculture,  Commerce,  and  Immigration.     1907. 
§  Senate  Document  No.  645.     Op  cit.,  Vol.  1,  p.  285. 
276 


PROHIBITION    OF    NIGHT   WORK 

"The  indications,"  says  the  federal  report,  "are  strong 
enough  to  warrant  the  conclusion  that  overtime  runs  to 
dangerous  limits  in  both  mercantile  and  manufacturing  es- 
tablishments, in  the  absence  of  restrictive  laws  not  only 
setting  definitely  a  limit  to  the  hours  of  labor  per  day  and 
per  week,  but  fixing  the  closing  hours."* 

The  legal  closing  hour  which  has  been  found  the  only 
practicable  device  to  check  unscrupulous  night  work,  is  the 
most  immediate  need  in  our  legislation  for  working  women. 
It  must  be  made  an  integral  part  of  all  laws  reducing  the 
length  of  the  workday  if  they  are  to  be  enforceable  and  if  they 
are  to  protect  the  workers  in  fact  as  well  as  in  theory. 

The  special  interests  are  strong  enough  today  to  obscure 
the  issues  and  secure  for  themselves  special  license  to  invert 
nature's  order  of  life  for  thousands  of  working  women. 
Nature's  revenges  for  the  infraction  of  her  inviolable  law  will 
teach  another  generation  better  wisdom,  unless  reason  can 
in  our  day  prevail  over  indiflference  and  greed,  and  restore 
to  wage-earning  girls  and  women  the  night  for  sleep. 

*  Senate  Document  No.  645.  Op.  cit..  Vol.  V.  Wage-Earning  Wo- 
men in  Stores  and  Factories,  p.  215.     Italics  added. 


277 


M 


XI 

CONCLUSION 

ANY  persons  who  have  followed  our  argument  to 
this  point  may  be  inclined  to  resent  the  predominat- 
ing role  assigned  to  overwork  and  fatigue.  They  may 
contend  that  this  stress  on  the  length  of  working  hours  is 
wholly  irrational;  that  overstrain  is  altogether  too  limited  a 
cause  to  assign  for  the  breakdown  of  health  and  efficiency. 
"The  really  fundamental  basis  of  health,"  these  critics  will 
say,  "is  contingent  upon  the  total  standard  of  living.  The 
causes  of  breakdown  cannot  be  isolated,  but  lie  in  the  total 
disabilities  of  working  people.  Their  dark  and  unsanitary 
homes,  their  overcrowding  and  lack  of  privacies,  their  bad 
food  and  unpalatable  cooking, — all  these  things  are  more 
important  for  health  than  the  mere  number  of  hours  spent  at 
work.  And  on  the  industrial  side,  probably  wages  and  in- 
come have  a  much  more  direct  relation  to  health  than  a  few 
hours  more  or  less  of  work.  In  curtailing  work,  therefore," 
our  critic  continues,  "you  are  further  lessening  productivity 
and  income,  and  so  are  merely  making  the  struggle  for  exist- 
ence harder." 

Some  conscientious  critics  go  even  further  than  this  and 
contend  that  leisure  is  mere  temptation  to  go  wrong,  when 
people  live  in  wretched,  crowded  homes,  with  only  the  street 
and  the  saloon  to  satisfy  desire.  A  shortened  workday,  they 
say,  gives  the  workers  just  so  much  more  opportunity  for 
dissipation. 

Now  it  is,  in  large  degree,  this  point  of  view  on  the  part 
of  many  persons  which  is  responsible  for  much  of  the  pre- 
valent indifference  and  ignorance  concerning  the  active  in- 
juries of  overwork,  in  industry  as  it  exists  today. 

278 


CONCLUSION 

In  a  previous  chapter  we  have  dwelt  upon  the  economic 
fallacy  in  this  criticism,  and  have  shown  how  output  and 
wages  tend  to  rise  rather  than  fall  with  shortened  working 
hours,  so  that  income  is  in  the  long  run  increased,  not  cur- 
tailed. 

So  far  as  regards  temperance  and  the  whole  general  tone 
of  working  communities,  we  need  not  rely  on  theories  and 
speculations.  We  need  only  appeal  to  that  body  of  historical 
fact  to  which  we  have  so  often  turned  for  light.  As  a  matter 
of  fact,  what  has  been  the  effect  on  working  people  of  in- 
creased leisure?  How  have  they,  on  the  whole,  spent  the 
added  hour  or  hours  of  freedom  from  work? 

The  answer  to  this  question  is,  indeed,  one  of  the  most 
encouraging  chapters  in  industrial  history:  the  response  to 
opportunity,  the  rapidity  with  which  working  people  have 
learned  the  uses  of  leisure.  Where  cynics  prophesied  mere 
drunken  idleness  and  rowdyism,  fairer  observers  found  a  kind 
of  regeneration.  There  was  no  sudden  millennium  but  where- 
ever  sufficient  time  has  elapsed  since  the  establishment  of  a 
more  humane  workday,  allowing  a  wider  margin  of  leisure, 
the  workers  have  made  extraordinary  advance  in  physique 
and  morals.*  The  gradual  emergence  of  the  English  mill 
operatives  from  the  physical  and  moral  degeneration  into 
which  they  had  sunk  in  the  thirties  of  the  last  century,  is  not 
exceptional  but  typical. f  It  is  a  humble  chronicle,  but  full 
of  meaning  to  any  reader  who  loves  the  fullness  of  human 
nature.  Gardening,  sewing,  the  out-of-doors  on  summer 
evenings,  evening  schools  in  winter,  time  for  the  "endearing 
trivialities  of  home  life," — these  were  some  of  the  simple, 
yet  enduring  things  at  which  mill  workers  learned  to  spend 
their  leisure. 

Of  the  benefits  accruing  from  the  change,  none  have  been 
greater  than  the  increase  in  temperance.  Nor  is  this  sur- 
prising.    No  thoughtful  observer  can  seriously  ascribe  to 

*  See  Part  II  of  this  volume,  pp.  290-317. 

t  British  Sessional  Papers,  1847-48,  Vol.  XXVI,  p.  9;  1849,  Vol.  XXII, 
p.  7;  1850,  Vol.  XX 11 1,  pp.  48-49;  1868-69,  Vol.  XIV,  p.  83,  etc. 

279 


FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 

man's  natural  depravity,  the  domination  of  liquor  with  all 
its  attendant  miseries.  The  truth  is  that  among  industrial 
workers  the  desire  for  drink  has  often  sprung  from  sheer 
physical  exhaustion.  To  a  wholly  unappreciated  extent  the 
sway  of  alcohol  has  been  due  to  the  worker's  craving  for  some 
stimulant  or  support  for  exhausted  energies. 

Thus,  for  instance,  in  such  places  of  work  as  the  laun- 
dries, which  make  the  heaviest  demands  on  muscular  and 
nervous  strength,  where  hours  are  long  and  overtime  lasts 
late  into  the  night,  drink  is  the  resource  of  physical  debility. 

Sir  Thomas  Oliver,  the  eminent  English  expert  on  in- 
dustrial diseases,  dwells*  upon  this  condition  of  affairs  in 
England,  and  the  same  may  be  observed  in  our  own  country. 

"Imagine  the  amazement  of  the  master  of  a  mill  or 
weaving  factory  if  his  employes  were  to  stop  in  a  body  for  a 
quarter  of  an  hour  twice  a  day  between  meals  to  drink  beer! 
Yet  in  many  laundries  the  beer  is  kept  on  the  premises  for 
the  purpose.  ...  A  woman  who  is  expected  on  Thurs- 
days or  Fridays  to  be  in  the  laundry  from  8  or  8:30  in  the 
morning  till  9  or  10  or  11  at  night,  may  claim  with  some  show 
of  reason  that  only  by  some  kind  of  spur  can  she  keep  her 
overtired  body  from  flagging." 

On  the  other  hand,  by  releasing  the  workers  before  the 
very  exhaustion  of  fatigue  overtakes  them  and  inclines  them 
to  the  strong  stimulant  of  drink,  the  shorter  workday  has 
been  a  powerful  influence  toward  greater  sobriety  and  self- 
control. 

No  thinking  person  can  deny  that  in  the  last  resort  health 
is  determined  by  the  total  standard  of  living;  that — besides 
long  hours — poverty  and  low  wages,  unsanitary  tenements 
and  bad  food,  dirt  and  overcrowding,  are  the  tangled  causes 
of  lowered  vitality  and  illness.  Nor  would  we  minimize  the 
physical  effects  of  mental  distress  and  worry  among  work- 
ing people  who  are  only  a  few  months  off  from  real  destitu- 
tion, when  a  short  loss  of  employment  may  mean  starvation. 

*  Oliver,  Thomas:  Dangerous  Trades,  p.  672.  New  York,  E.  P. 
Dutton  and  Co.     London,  J.  Murray,  1902. 

280 


CONCLUSION 

We  would  freely  grant  all  that  our  critics  can  possibly  say  of 
these  evils.  They  cannot  be  too  strongly  stated.  Yet,  so  far 
as  the  overworked  are  concerned,  all  these  causes  of  dis- 
tress might  be  removed — wages,  food,  housing,  and  sanitation, 
all  be  raised  to  a  higher  level — and  yet  the  essential  cause  of 
breakdown  would  be  untouched  so  long  as  the  "few  extra 
hours  of  work"  remain,  as  our  supposed  critics  would  call 
them.  The  shorter  workday  and  relief  from  overstrain  are 
not  in  themselves  the  cure  for  the  ills  we  have  considered; 
but  they  are  the  sine  qua  non  without  which  no  other  cure 
is  possible  or  conceivable.  Just  because  a  fatigued  person  is 
a  poisoned  person,  poisoned  by  the  accumulation  of  his  own 
waste  products,  nothing  can  fundamentally  cure  the  ex- 
hausted worker  which  does  not  eliminate  the  cause  of  such 
accumulated  poisoning.  As  we  have  seen,  after  exhaustion 
has  set  in  nothing  but  rest  and  repose  permits  the  organism 
to  expel  its  poisons  from  day  to  day. 

In  Professor  Lee's  impressive  words: 

"Mankind  at  present  can  administer  no  food  or  drug 
that  can  push  the  wearied  cells  up  the  metabolic  grade  either 
simultaneously  with  their  descent  or  quickly  after  the  de- 
scent has  ceased.  Only  the  assimilation  and  detoxication 
that  normally  come  with  rest,  and  best,  rest  with  sleep,  are 
capable  of  adequate  restoration  of  working  power."* 

It  would  be  no  more  unreasonable  to  expect  to  cure  a 
lead  or  arsenic-poisoned  worker  by  higher  wages,  good  food, 
and  a  clean  house  while  he  was  continuing  daily  to  absorb  the 
arsenic  or  lead  which  was  poisoning  him,  than  to  expect 
better  food  and  housing  to  cure  any  worker  who  is  habitually 
accumulating  within  himself  the  chemical  poisons  of  fatigue, 
generated  at  every  breath.  Nothing  can  cure  him  and  restore 
the  buoyant  resistance  from  which  alone  health  springs, 
which  does  not  allow  the  actual  time  off  from  work,  for  repair 
and  recuperation. 

It  is  true  that  the  psychologists  tell  us,  and  with  them 

*  The  Harvey  Lectures,  1905-06,  p.  179.  Philadelphia,  Lippincott 
Co.,  1908. 

281 


FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 

the  nerve  specialists,  that  to  a  certain  degree  the  fatigue 
threshold  may  be  made  to  shift;  that  we  may  discipline  our- 
selves to  endurance  so  as  to  tap  new  levels  of  energy,  "  masked 
until  then  by  the  fatigue  obstacle  usually  obeyed." 

The  most  famous  of  American  psychologists,  who  was 
also  one  of  the  "  best  practical  knowers  of  the  human  soul," 
has  written  upon  this  phenomenon  of  "second  wind,"  in  an 
essay  of  characteristic  insight  and  felicity  which  has  some- 
times been  quoted  as  though  in  defense  of  any  kind  of  over- 
exertion:* 

"We  have  to  admit,"  says  James,  "the  wider  potential 
range  and  the  habitually  narrow  actual  use.  We  live  sub- 
ject to  arrest  by  degrees  of  fatigue  which  we  have  come  only 
from  habit  to  obey.  Most  of  us  may  learn  to  push  the  barrier 
farther  off,  and  to  live  in  perfect  comfort  on  much  higher 
levels  of  power.     .     .     . 

"Stating  the  thing  broadly,  the  human  individual  thus 
lives  usually  far  within  his  limits;  he  possesses  powers  of 
various  sorts  which  he  habitually  fails  to  use.  He  energizes 
below  his  maximum,  and  he  behaves  below  his  optimum." 

Why  not  assume,  then,  it  has  been  argued,  that  the 
workers  who  are  subject  to  industrial  overpressure  learn  to 
push  their  fatigue  barriers  farther  off  and  sustain  the  inten- 
sity of  their  tasks  in  proportion  to  their  new-found  powers? 

But  such  an  argument  strangely  distorts  the  doctrine 
of  second  wind,  which  is  something  far  deeper  and  more 
"qualitative"  than  a  stress  upon  mere  bodily  exertions 
and  activities. 

"When  1  speak  of  'energizing'  and  its  rates  and  levels 
and  sources,  1  mean  therefore  our  inner  as  well  as  our  outer 
work.  ...  To  relax,  to  say  to  ourselves  (with  the 
'new  thoughters')  'Peace!  be  still!'  is  sometimes  a  great 
achievement   of   inner   work." 

Far  from  justifying  even  remotely  the  industrial  strains 

*  James,  William:  The  Energies  of  Men.  Memories  and  Studies, 
p.  227.     New  York,  Longmans,  Green  and  Co.,  1911. 

282 


CONCLUSION 

and  stresses  such  as  we  have  been  considering,  James  speci- 
fically limits  his  plea  for  deeper  and  more  intensive  living  by 
the  proviso  "so  long  as  decent  hygienic  conditions  are  pre- 
served." 

But  our  quarrel  with  the  conditions  of  industrial  labor 
is  precisely  that  they  are  not  "decent  hygienic  conditions." 
They  are  not  normal  media  for  human  living,  and  they  never 
can  be  so  long  as  they  continue  to  infract  the  first  mandates 
of  hygiene,  the  laws  of  metabolic  equilibrium. 

There  is  a  practical  consideration  also  for  putting  first 
among  the  forces  which  undermine  health,  the  length  of  the 
workday.  The  cure  for  this  injury  lies  at  hand.  Shortening 
the  workday  is  something  that  legislation  can  effect  for 
women  and  children  today,  for  men  doubtless  in  the  future. 
But  better  conditions  within  the  home — better  sanitation, 
better  nutrition  and  hygiene — can  never  be  enforced  by  out- 
side authority  and  can  come  only  by  slow  process  of  educa- 
tion as  people  gradually  learn  to  recognize  such  needs.  The 
community  can  demand  and  enforce  the  requirement  that 
workers  be  dismissed  from  factory  and  store  at  a  given  time. 
It  can  never  enforce  the  requirements  of  hygiene  at  home  ex- 
cept when  their  neglect  becomes  a  public  danger,  through 
infection  and  the  like.  Hence  the  establishment  of  a  shorter 
day  is  an  immediate  and  practicable  as  well  as  an  indispen- 
sable step  towards  conserving  health. 

But  this  practical  consideration  fades  into  insignificance 
beside  the  fact  that  the  "few  extra  hours  of  work"  which  our 
casual  critic  so  under-rates,  can  wholly  undo  the  benefits  of  a 
higher  standard  of  living,  even  were  it  assured  by  long  hours. 
Consider,  for  instance,  the  vital  matter  of  nutrition.  It  is 
well  known  that  digestion  is  one  of  the  first  bodily  functions 
to  suffer  in  exhaustion.  Exhaustion,  as  it  drains  our  nervous 
energies,  deranges  the  unconscious  reflex  activities  of  the 
nervous  system  which,  as  we  have  seen,  regulate  the  uncon- 
scious actions  of  our  organs — heart,  stomach,  intestines,  and 
the   rest.     Their   normal   action    is   impaired   or   retarded. 

283 


FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 

What,  then,  is  the  benefit  of  a  more  ample  diet  if  the  or- 
ganism is  not  in  a  fit  condition  to  digest  what  is  offered  it? 
The  habitually  exhausted  person  scarcely  profits  from  the 
increased  food  which  larger  wages  afford,  if  after  excessive 
work  he  literally  cannot  digest  it.  It  has  been  too  dearly 
bought.  So,  too,  the  nervous  heart  troubles  and  palpitations 
among  working  people  of  which  Dr.  Liibenau  and  the  others 
write, — what  are  they  but  derangements  of  the  nervous 
mechanism  which  regulates  our  most  vital  organ?  What 
good  to  the  worker  are  the  higher  standards, — better  food, 
clothing,  and  shelter — so  long  as  over-fatigue  continues  to 
limit  or  destroy  his  capacity  of  enjoying  them? 

Thus  fatigue  does  mischief  negatively  as  well  as  posi- 
tively :  lowering  vitality  and  breeding  disease  is  its  active  and 
positive  aspect.  Shutting  out  the  exhausted  from  their  right- 
ful heritage,  contracting,  binding,  inhibiting,  is  its  negative. 
Other  faculties  suffer  as  well  as  the  vital  bodily  functions. 
For  as  exhaustion  nullifies  the  benefits  of  better  food  and 
shelter,  so,  too,  it  paralyzes  the  higher  activities,  all  that  feeds 
man's  mental  and  spiritual  needs.  The  higher  standard  of 
living  includes  besides  food  and  drink  and  clothing,  better 
education,  saner  amusements,  nobler  recreation.  But  as 
the  over-fatigued  digestion  fails,  so  over-fatigued  hearing  is 
blunted,  over-fatigued  attention  and  appreciation  flag.  Offer 
what  opportunities  you  will  to  the  exhausted  organism,  they 
fall  upon  literally  deafened  ears.*  Fatigue  so  closes  the 
avenues  of  approach  within,  that  education  does  not  educate, 
amusement  does  not  amuse,  nor  recreation  recreate.  Books 
and  learning,  pictures,  music,  play — all  these  enfranchise- 
ments of  the  spirit  lose  their  power.  "Our  fires  are  damped, 
our  drafts  are  checked."  The  wings  of  freedom  are  clipped, 
wings  that  soar  above 

"the  heavy  and  the  weary  weight 
Of  all  this  unintelligible  world." 

*  Archivio  Italiano  di  Otologia,  Rinologia  e  Laringolavia,  July,  1907. 
No.  4.  Delia  Influenza  della  fatica  suH'organo  deil'udito.  Dr.  Luigi 
Ragani  and  Dr.  Vincenzo  Frazoia. 

I  284 


CONCLUSION 

To  be  so  crippled  is  deplorable  enough  for  any  members 
of  society.  It  is  the  more  so  for  industrial  workers  because, 
with  industry  as  it  exists,  their  development  as  human  beings 
is  more  and  more  dependent  upon  the  use  of  leisure.  It  is  the 
peculiar  sin  of  monotonous  and  subdivided  labor  that  it 
destroys  what  we  inadequately  call  pleasure  in  work, — the 
ever-so-slight  satisfaction  of  man's  creative  sense,  his  dimmest 
feelings  of  mastery  or  self-expression  in  work,  often  more  pain 
than  joy. 

The  stress  upon  spontaneity  and  joy  in  work  in  the  fore- 
going extracts  from  foreign  insurance  studies  cannot  have 
failed  to  strike  the  reader.  It  is  the  language  of  Ruskin  and 
Morris  on  the  lips  of  German  insurance  physicians.  They 
actually  talk  as  though  there  were  after  all  a  palpable  con- 
nection between  machine  routine  and  deterioration,  between 
health  and  the  love  of  work.  And  these  are  not  merely 
aesthetic  considerations  by  theorists  or  dreamers.  These 
physicians  are  not  dealing  with  the  stuff  that  dreams  are 
made  of.  They  are  not  seeking  to  evolve  new  theories  or 
schemes  of  industry.  They  are  as  yet  merely  individual 
scientific  observers,  struck  by  brute  facts  which  cannot  be 
escaped:  the  enormous  increase  of  certain  forms  of  disease 
and  suffering  among  working  people  year  by  year. 

In  time  to  come,  means  may  again  be  found  for  the  play 
of  individuality  in  work,  for  some  freedom  of  the  human  agent 
from  the  machine.  Industrial  training  tends  in  this  direc- 
tion by  giving  the  young  some  perspective,  and  teaching  the 
relation  of  circumscribed  tasks  to  wholes  of  which  they  are 
parts.  A  medical  examination  of  young  persons  before  em- 
ployment which  would  start  them  towards  work  for  which 
they  are  physically  fit,  and  the  restriction  of  all  workers  from 
tasks  for  which  they  are  clearly  unfit,  will  also  help  to  em- 
phasize the  human  element  in  manufacture  and  commerce. 
The  wiser  scientific  management  of  businesses  also  offers 
vistas  of  betterment. 

But  in  the  main,  and  viewing  the  whole  trend  of  in- 
dustry, we  cannot  conceal  from  ourselves  that  its  prodigious 

285 


FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 

processes  are  deadening  to  spontaneity,  and  that  they  are 
becoming  more  so.  We  can  no  more  check  subdivision  and 
monotony  than  the  pace  of  the  machines.  But  we  can  seek 
to  imbue  the  purely  economic  view  of  the  workers,  as  units 
of  production,  by  a  broader  physiological  spirit.  Our  studies 
in  fatigue  have  shown  that  human  power  is  not  a  static  thing, 
which  can  be  screwed  up  to  the  sticking  place  and  remain 
there.  The  workers'  muscular  powers  may  be  raised  to 
what  seems  like  the  nth  degree,  and  yet  they  may  fail, 
broken  and  unstrung,  at  an  age  when  working  capacity  should 
still  be  at  its  height. 

it  is  a  truism  that  trade  life  in  America  has  been  shorter 
than  in  foreign  countries,  where  the  pace  is  slower.  The 
race  is  to  the  swift  in  a  sense  never  dreamt  of  before,  and  in 
our  industries  the  swift  are  necessarily  the  young,  even  the 
very  young. 

The  pace  has  indeed  been  kept  so  high  in  many  great 
trades,  partly  because  the  steady  flow  of  immigration  keeps 
bearing  to  our  shores  at  intervals  of  time,  young  laborers  of 
new  immigrant  races,  able  to  replace  those  workers  who  have 
broken  under  the  strain.  So  long  as  immigration  streams 
westward  it  may  be  expedient,  from  a  narrow  economic  point 
of  view,  to  press  all  workers  to  their  physical  limits,  and  to 
dismiss  them  so  soon  as  efficiency  shows  signs  of  failing. 
What  shall  we  say  from  the  physiological  or  racial  point  of 
view? 

We  must  bear  in  mind  throughout  that  the  essence  of 
this  newer  view  is  its  insistence  on  conserving  the  energies  of 
men.  In  this  the  physiologist  voices  a  larger,  intrinsic  de- 
mand of  Democracy  itself.  He  cannot  consider  man's  out- 
put separate  from  himself,  nor  this  year's  nor  next  year's 
efficiency  apart  from  its  effects  on  future  health  and  energy. 
Ten  years'  continuance  at  a  maximum  pace  is  in  itself  no 
criterion  at  all  for  the  physiologist.  Even  one  whole  genera- 
tion is  too  short  to  measure  the  ravages  of  anti-physiological 
living;  and  when  overwork  unfits  man  or  woman  for  normal 
parenthood,  it  is  in  a  deep  sense,  anti-physiological  and  anti- 
I  286 


CONCLUSION 

social.  It  touches  not  alone  the  welfare  but  the  very  fibre  of 
human  society,  that  congregate  "whole,"  which  it  should  be 
our  passionate  concern  to  recognize,  in  the  stirring  words  of 
the  Supreme  Court,  as  "no  greater  than  the  sum  of  all  its 
parts,"  for  "when  the  individual  health,  safety  and  welfare 
are  sacrificed  or  neglected,  the  state  must  suffer." 

Granting  the  truth  of  the  Industrial  Commission's  con- 
clusion ten  years  ago — that  no'  program  for  reducing  the 
intensity  of  exertion  can  succeed — there  remains  another 
horn  of  the  dilemma,  the  reduction  of  the  work  day. 

The  workers'  time  and  vitality  need  not  be  all  consumed 
in  their  tasks.  In  leisure  other  ranges  of  the  spirit  are  un- 
folded: "another  race  hath  been,  and  other  palms  are  won." 
The  limitation  of  working  hours,  therefore,  which  assures 
leisure,  is  not  a  merely  negative  program.  It  limits  work, 
indeed,  to  make  good  the  daily  deficits,  and  to  send  back  the 
worker  physiologically  prepared  for  another  day.  It  frees 
the  worker  from  toil  before  exhaustion  deprives  leisure  of  its 
potentialities.  It  thus  fulfils  a  reasoned  purpose.  As  the 
physiological  function  of  rest  is  to  repair  fatigue,  so  the  func- 
tion of  the  shorter  day  is  to  afford  to  working  people  physio- 
logical rest — with  all  that  is  implied  further  by  way  of  leisure. 


287 


APPENDICES 


10 


EXPLANATORY  NOTE 

The  laws  regulating  women's  hours  of  labor  are  here 
shown  in  two  forms.  For  complete  statement,  extracts 
from  the  statutes  are  given  in  alphabetical  order,  beginning 
page  305.  In  addition  the  comparative  schedules  show  at  a 
glance  the  standing  of  each  state  with  regard  to  the  degree 
of  protection  afforded.  States  are  listed  according  to  the 
number  of  hours  of  labor  allowed,  in  an  ascending  scale  from 
the  shortest  hours  to  the  longest.  The  hours  allowed  in  the 
most  important  places  of  employment  (manufacturing, 
mercantile,  laundries,  etc.)  are  first  separately  shown  in 
the  schedules,  and  a  summary  table  is  then  given  (Schedule 
A.  No.  7)  showing  all  the  establishments  included  in  each  law. 

It  is  difficult  in  a  brief  compass  to  set  forth  laws  with 
many  great  and  small  differences  and  exceptions.  None  of 
the  schedules  is  complete  in  itself;  they  must  be  used  to- 
gether, as  shown  in  the  footnotes,  to  obtain  a  complete 
statement.  The  method  here  used  has  been  adopted 
because  it  most  readily  reveals  the  defects  and  the  benefits 
of  each  law,  and  because  it  has  been  found  less  confusing 
to  the  reader  than  the  attempt  to  cover  all  points  in  one 
inclusive  schedule. 


APPENDIX  A 

LAWS  REGULATING  WOMEN'S  LABOR 

1.     COMPARATIVE  SCHEDULES 
A.     HOURS  OF  LABOR 

I.  MANUFACTURING  ESTABLISHMENTS 

(24  States  limit  the  hours  of  labor  of  women) 


Hours  in 
One  Day 

Hours  in 
One  IVeek 

State 

8 

48 

California 
Washington 

9 

54 

Missouri 
Utah 

9H 

58 

New  Hampshire^ 

10 

54 

Massachusetts^ 
Michigan 
New  York 
Ohio 

10 

55 

Wisconsin^ 

10 

56 

Rhode  Island^ 

10 

58 

Connecticut^ 

Mainea 

Minnesota^ 

10 

60 

Kentucky 
Louisiana 
Maryland^  b 
Nebraska 
New  Jersey 
Oregon 

10 



Illinois 
Virginia 

— 

60 

Tennessee 

12 

60 

Pennsylvania 

a  For  overtime,  see  Schedule  B,  p.  302. 
t>  For  night  work,  see  Schedule  D,  p.  304. 

291 


FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 

No  Legal  Limitation  of  Hours  in  Manufacturing 
Establishments 

(23  states  and  the  District  of  Columbia*) 


Alabama 

Arkansas 

Arizona 

Coloradof 

Delaware 

District  of  Columbia 

Florida 

Georgia  J 


Idaho 

Iowa 

Kansas 

Mississippi^ 

Montana 

Nevada 

New  Mexico 

North  Carolinal 


North  DakotaJ 
OklahomaJ 
South  Carolina^ 
South  DakotaJ 
Texas 
Vermont 
West  Virginia 
Wj'oming 


*  Indiana  has  no  limitation  of  hours  in  the  daytime.  For  prohibition 
of  night  work  see  Schedule  D,  p.  304. 

t  Act  of  1903  held  unconstitutional.    41  Col.  495. 

X  Statutes  so  drawn  as  to  be  nullified  by  their  own  wording.  See  pp. 
307,  313,  314,  316,  and  317. 


292 


LAWS    REGULATING   WOMEN  S    LABOR 


2.  MERCANTILE  ESTABLISHMENTS 

(19  States  limit  the  hours  of  labor  of  women) 


Hours  in 
One  Day 

Hours  in 
One  IVeek 

State 

8 

48 

California 
Washington 

9 

54 

Missouri 
Utah 

10 

54 

Michigan 

10 

55 

Wisconsin^ 

~ 

58 

Connecticut^!  b 
Massachusetts 
Minnesota 

10 

60 

"   Kentucky 
Louisiana*^ 
Maryland^ 
Nebraska 
New  Jerseyd 
Oregon 

10 

— 

Illinois 
Virginia^ 

12 

60 

Pennsylvania 
South  Carolina 

^  For  night  work,  see  Schedule  D,  p.  304. 

b  Except  between  December  17th  and  25th,  provided  that  seven  holi- 
days with  pay  are  given  in  each  year. 

c  Except  Saturdays  and  twenty  days  before  Christmas. 

d  Except  six  working  days  next  preceding  Christmas. 

^  Except  Saturdays,  or  in  towns  of  less  than  2,000  inhabitants,  or  in 
country  districts. 

No  Legal  Limitation  of  Hours  in  Mercantile 

Establishments 

(29  states  and  the  District  of  Columbia) 

Ohio* 
Oklahoma 
Rhode  Island 
South  Dakota 
Tennessee 
Texas 
Vermont 
Wyoming 

*  Case  involving  the  inclusion  of  mercantile  establishments  in  Ohio 
statute  pending  before  the  United  States  Supreme  Court 

293 


Alabama 

Georgia 

Montana 

Arizona 

Idaho 

Nevada 

Arkansas 

Indiana 

New  Hampshire 

Colorado 

Iowa 

New  Mexico 

Delaware 

Kansas 

New  York 

D.  C. 

Maine 

North  Carolina 

Florida 

Mississippi 

North  Dakota 

West  Virginia 

FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 


3.  LAUNDRIES 

(23  States  limit  the  hours  of  labor) 


Hours  in 
One  Day 


Hours  in 
One  IVeek 


9^ 


10 


10 


10 


10 


10 


10 


12 


48 


54 


58 
54" 


State 


Arizona^ 

California 

Washington 


Missouri 
Utah 


New  Hampshire^ 


55 


Massachusetts^ 
Michigan 
New  York 

Ohio_    

Wisconsin^ 


56 


58 


Rhode  island* 


60 


Connecticut* 

Maine* 

Minnesota* 

Kentucky 

Louisiana 

Maryland* 

Nebraska 

New  Jersey 

Oregon 


Illinois 


60 


Pennsylvania 


*  For  overtime,  see  Schedule  B,  page  302. 
b  For  night  work,  see  Schedule  D,  page  304. 

No  Legal  Limitation  of  Hours  in  Laundries 
(25  states  and  the  District  of  Columbia) 

Alabama  Iowa  Oklahoma 

Arkansas  Kansas  South  Carolina 

Colorado  Mississippi  South  Dakota 

Delaware  Montana  Tennessee 

District  of  Columbia  Nevada  Texas 

Florida  New  Mexico  Vermont 

Georgia  North  Carolina  Virginia 

Idaho  North  Dakota  West  Virginia 

Indiana  Wyoming 

294 


LAWS    REGULATING    WOMEN  S    LABOR 


4.  THE  TELEPHONE  AND  TELEGRAPH  SERVICE 

(10  States  limit  the  hours  of  labor) 


Hours  in 

One  Day 

Hours  in 

One  IVeek 

State 

8 

48 

California 
Washington 

9 

54 

Montana  (Except  to  relieve  another 
employe  in  case  of  sickness  or 
other  unforeseen  cause  or  causes. 
Applies  only  to  telephones  in  cities 
or  towns  of  3,000  or  more.) 

Utah  (Except  in  cases  of  emergency 
in  hospitals,  or  where  life  or  prop- 
erty is  in  danger.) 

10 

54 

Ohio 

10 

55 

Wisconsin* 

10 

60 

Kentucky 
Louisiana 
Oregon 

10 

— 

Illinois 

*  For  night  work,  see  Schedule  D,  page  304. 


No  Legal  Limitation  of  Hours  in  Telephone  and  Tele- 
graph Establishments 

(38  states  and  the  District  of  Columbia) 


Alabama 

Arizona 

Arkansas 

Colorado 

Connecticut 

Delaware 

District  of  Columbia 

Florida 

Georgia 

Idaho 

Indiana 

Iowa 

Kansas 


Maine 

Maryland 

Massachusetts 

Michigan 

Minnesota 

Mississippi 

Missouri 

Nebraska 

Nevada 

New  Hampshire 

New  Jersey 

New  Mexico 

New  York 


North  Carolina 
North  Dakota 
Oklahoma 
Pennsylvania 
Rhode  Island 
South  Carolina 
South  Dakota 
Tennessee 
Texas 
Vermont 
Virginia 
West  Virginia 
Wyoming 


295 


FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 

5.  RESTAURANTS 

(11  States  limit  the  hours  of  labor) 


Hours  in 
One  Day 

Hours  in 
One  iVeek 

State 

8 

48 

California 
Washington 

9 

54 

Utah 

10 

54 

Ohio 

10 

55 

Wisconsin* 

10 

60 

Kentucky 
Nebraska 
New  Jersey 
Oregon 

10 

— 

Illinois 

— 

58 

Massachusetts 

a  For  night  work  see  Schedule  D,  page  304. 


No  Legal  Limitation  of  Hours  in  Restaurants 


(37  states  and  the  District  of  Columbia) 

Alabama  Louisiana 

Arizona  Maine 

Arkansas  Maryland 

Colorado  Michigan 

Connecticut  Minnesota 


Delaware  Mississippi 
District  of  Columbia  Missouri 

Florida  Montana 

Georgia  Nevada 

Idaho  New  Hampshire 

Indiana  New  Mexico 

Iowa  New  York 

Kansas  North  Carolina 


North  Dakota 
Oklahoma 
Pennsylvania 
Rhode  Island 
South  Carolina 
South  Dakota 
Tennessee 
Texas 
Vermont 
Virginia 
West  Virginia 
Wyoming 


296 


LAWS    REGULATING    WOMEN  S    LABOR 


6.  HOTELS 

(7  States  limit  the  hours  of  labor) 


Hours  in 
One  Day 

Hours  in 
One  fVeek 

State 

8 

48 

California 
Washington 

9 

54 

Utah 

10 

60 

Kentucky 
Nebraska 
Oregon 

10 

— 

Illinois 

No  Legal  Limitation  of  Hours  in  Hotels 
(41  states  and  the  District  of  Columbia) 


Alabama 

Arizona 

Arkansas 

Colorado 

Connecticut 

Delaware 

District  of  Columbia 

Florida 

Georgia 

Idaho 

Indiana 

Iowa 

Kansas 

Louisiana 


Maine 

Maryland 

Massachusetts 

Michigan 

Minnesota 

Mississippi 

Missouri 

Montana 

Nevada 

New  Hampshire 

New  Jersey 

New  Mexico 

New  York 

North  Carolina 


North  Dakota 

Ohio 

Oklahoma 

Pennsylvania 

Rhode  Island 

South  Carolina 

South  Dakota 

Tennessee 

Texas 

Vermont 

Virginia 

West  Virginia 

Wisconsin 

Wyoming 


297 


FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 


7.  ALL  ESTABUSHMENTS  INCLUDED 

(27  States  limit  the  hours  of  labor) 


Year 
Enacted 

1909 
1911 


1911 
1911 
1909 

1911 


Hours  in 
One  Day 


Hours  in 
One  IVeek 


48 


54 


54 


1907 


9^ 


1911 
1909 


10 


58 


54 


Stale  and  Establishments  Included 


Arizona" — Laundry. 

California^ —  Manufacturing, 
mechanical  or  mercantile, 
laundry,  hotel,  restaurant, 
telegraph  or  telephone  of- 
fice, express  or  transporta- 
tion company. 

Washington^ — Mechanical  or 
mercantile,  laundry,  hotel 
or  restaurant. 


Missouri  —  Manufacturing, 
mechanical  and  mercan- 
tile, laundry,  workshop. 

Montana — Telephone  switch- 
boards in  cities  or  towns 
having  more  than  3,000  in- 
habitants. 

Utahb — Manufacturing,  me- 
chanical, or  mercantile, 
laundry,  hotel,  or  restau- 
rant, telegraph  or  tele- 
phone, hospital  or  office, 
express  or  transportation 
company. 


New  Hampshire" — Manu- 
facturing or  mechanical, 
laundry. 


Massachusetts"  —  Manu- 
facturing or  mechanical. 

Michigan^ — Factory,  mill, 
warehouse,  workshop, 

clothing,  dressmaking  or 
millinery,  any  place  where 
the  manufacture  of  any 
kind  of  goods  is  carried  on, 
or  where  any  goods  are  pre- 
pared for  manufacturing, 
laundry,  store,  shop,  mer- 
cantile. 


»  For  overtime,  see  Schedule  B,  page  302. 
b  For  exemptions,  see  Schedule  C,  page  303. 

298 


LAWS    REGULATING   WOMEN  S    LABOR 
7.  ALL  ESTABLISHMENTS  INCLUDED-( Continued) 


Year 
Enacted 

Hours  in         Hours  in 
One  Dav     •    One  U''eek 

'      i 

State  and  Establishments  Included 

1912 
1911 

10 

54 

New  Yorkb — Factory,  laun- 
dry. 

Ohiob — Factory,  workshop, 
restaurant,  telephone  or 
telegraph  office,  millinery 
or  dressmaking,  distribu- 
tion or  transmission  of 
messages,  laundry. 

1911 

10 

55 

Wisconsin^  —  Manufactur- 
ing, mechanical  or  mercan- 
tile, laundry,  restaurant, 
confectionery  store,  tele- 
graph or  telephone  office  or 
exchange,  express  or  trans- 
portation compan\-. 

For  night  work  between  8  p. 
m.  and  6  a.  m. — except  one 
night  in  week — not  more 
than  8  hours  in  24,  and  48 
in  one  week. 

1909 

10 

56 

Rhode  Island^  —  Manufac- 
turing or  mechanical,  laun- 
dry. 

1909 

1909 
1909 

10 

58 

Connecticut^  —  Manufac- 
turing or  mechanical,  laun- 
dry 

Maine^b — Manufacturing  or 
mechanical,  laundry. 

Minnesota^  —  Manufactur- 
ing or  mechanical,  laundry. 

1912 

10 

60 

Kentucky — Laundry,  bakery, 
factory,  workshop,  store,  or 
mercantile,  manufacturing 
or  mechanical,  hotel,  res- 
taurant, telephone  or  tele- 
graph office. 

*  For  overtime,  see  Schedule  B,  page  302. 
b  For  exemptions,  see  Schedule  C,  page  303. 
c  For  night  work,  see  Schedule  D,  page  304. 


299 


FATIGUE    AND    EFHICIENCY 
7.  ALL  ESTABLISHMENTS  INCLUDED-(Continued) 


Year 
Enacted 


1908 


1912 

1905 
1912 
1909 


Hours  in 
One  Day 


10 


Hours  in 
One  IVeek 


60 


State  and  Establishments  Included 


Louisiana^ — Mill,  factory, 
mine,  packing  house,  man- 
ufacturing, workshop, 
laundry,  millinery  or  dress- 
making store  or  mercantile 
establishment,  in  which 
more  than  five  persons  are 
emplo\ed,  theater,  concert 
hall,  in  or  about  any  place 
of  amusement  where  in- 
toxicating liquors  are  made 
or  sold,  bowling  alle\',  boot- 
blacking  establishment, 
freight  or  passenger  ele- 
vator, transmission  or  dis- 
tribution of  messages,  tele- 
graph or  telephone,  or  any 
other  messages  or  merchan- 
dise, or  any  occupation 
not  enumerated  which  may 
be  deemed  unhealthful  or 
dangerous. 

Marylandabc—  Manufactur- 
ing, mechanical,  mercan- 
tile, printing,  baking  or 
laundering. 

Nebraska  —  Manufacturing, 
mechanical,  mercantile, 
hotel,  restaurant,  laundry. 

New  Jerseyb—  Manufactur- 
ing or  mercantile,  bakery, 
laundr\',  restaurant. 

Oregon — Manufacturing,  me- 
chanical, mercantile,  laun- 
dry, hotel,  restaurant,  tele- 
graph or  telephone  office, 
express  or  transportation 
compan\'. 


a  For  overtime,  see  Schedule  B,  page  302. 
^  For  exemptions,  see  Schedule  C,  page  303. 
c  For  night  work,  see  Schedule  D,  page  304. 


300 


LAWS    REGULATING    WOMEN  S    LABOR 


7.  ALL  ESTABUSHMENTS  INCLUDED— (Concluded) 


Year 
Enacted 

Hours  in 
One  Day 

Hours  in 
One  IVeek 

State  and  Establishments  Included 

1911 

1912 

10 

Illinois — Mechanical  or  mer- 
cantile, factory,  laundry, 
hotel,  restaurant,  telegraph 
or  telephone  office,  any 
place  of  amusement,  any 
express  or  transportation 
or  public  utility  business, 
any  common  carrier,  or 
any  public  institution. 

Virginia^ — Factory,  work- 
shop, mercantile,  or  manu- 
facturing. 

1909 
1909 
1909 

— 

58 

Connecticut^  c — Mercantile. 

Massachusetts  —  Mercantile, 

restaurant. 
Minnesota  —  Mercantile. 

1907 

— 

60 

Tennessee  —  Manufacturing. 

1909 

1911 

12 

60 

Pennsylvania  —  Establish- 
ments other  than  where  do- 
mestic, coal-mining  or  farm 
labor  is  employed,  laundry. 

South  Carolina'^  —  Mercan- 
tile. 

a  For  overtime,  see  Schedule  B,  page  302. 
b  For  exemptions,  see  Schedule  C,  page  303. 
c  For  night  work,  see  Schedule  D,  page  304. 


NO  LEGAL  LIMITATION  OF  HOURS  WHATSOEVER 

(20  States*  and  the  District  of  Columbia) 


Alabama 

Florida 

Mississippi^ 

OklahomaJ 

Arkansas 

GeorgiaJ 

Nevada 

South  DakotaJ 

Coloradof 

Idaho 

New  Mexico 

Texas 

Delaware 

Iowa 

North  Carolinal 

Vermont 

D.  C. 

Kansas 

North  DakotaJ 
Wyoming 

West  Virginia 

*  Indiana 

has  no  limitation  of  hours  in  the  day  time 

For  prohibition 

of  night  work  see  Schedule  D,  page  304. 

t  Act  of  1903  held  unconstitutional.     41  Col.  495. 

%  Statutes  so  drawn  as  to  be  nullified  by  their  own  wording. 
307,  313,  314,  and  317. 

301 


See  pp. 


FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 

B.    OVERTIME  ALLOWED 

1 .  MANUFACTURING  AND  MECHANICAL  ESTABLISHMENTS 

Five  states  allow  overtime  for  the  three  following  reasons: 

(a)  1  n  order  to  obtain  one  short  da\'  in  the  week. 

(b)  In  order  to  make  repairs  to  prevent  interruption  of  ordi- 
nary running  of  machinery. 

(c)  To  make  up  time  lost  on  some  previous  da\'  of  same  week 
in  consequence  of  stopping  machinery. 


Overtime  Allowed 

Restriction 

Hours  in  One  Day 

Total  Hours  in  One 
IVeek  Not  to  Exceed 

State 

48 

Arizona 

(Laundries  only) 

Unrestricted 

56 

Rhode  Island 

58 

Connecticut'' 

Maine 

New  Hampshire 

a  Sixty  hours  a  week  allowed,  if  55  hours  in  June,  July  and  August. 

Two  states  allow  overtime  for  the  two  following  reasons: 

(d)  In  order  to  obtain  one  short  day  in  the  week. 

(e)  To  make  up  for  stopping  machinery  over  30  minutes 


Overtime  Allowed 

Restriction 

In  Manufacturing  or 

Hours  in  One  Day 

Total  Hours  in  One 
H^'eek  Not  to  Exceed 

Mechanical  Establish- 
ments 

Unrestricted 

54 

Massachusetts* 

58 

Minnesota 

='  in  workshops  for  making  or  altering  garments,  connected  with  mer- 
cantile establishments,  fifty-six  hours  a  week  allowed.  By  act  of  1912 
allowance  of  overtime  to  obtain  one  short  day  in  week  repealed. 

302 


LAWS    REGULATING    WOMEN  S    LABOR 

(f)   To  meet  exceptional  seasonal  demands. 


OvERTIMt  ALLOWED 

Restriction 

In  One  Day 

In  One 
IVeek 

State 

12 
Unrestricted 

58 

Not  more  than  6  weeks 
in   any    year,    if    entire 
working  force  is  employed 
on   full   time   for   entire 
year    and    if    during    4 
months  immediately  pre- 
ceding overtime,  working 
day  of  less  than  9  hours 
has  been  established. 

Provided     that     total 
hours  shall  not  exceed  an 
average  of  54  hours  in  a 
week  for  whole  year,  ex- 
cludingSundays  and  holi- 
days. 

Maryland 
(applying 
only  to  Alle- 
gany   Coun- 
ty) 

Massachusetts 

C   EXE.MPTIONS:  Hours  Unrestricted 

\.  MERCANTILE  ESTABLISHMENTS 

(a)  Christmas  exemption 

Dec.  17-25 Connecticut  (provided  7  holidays  with 

pay  are  given  in  each  year) 

Dec.    5-25 Louisiana 

Dec.  19-25 New  Jersey 

{h)  Saturday  exemption 
Louisiana  Virginia 

2.  CANNING  ESTABLISHMENTS 

California  New  York  (between  June  15  and  Oct.  15) 

Maine  Ohio 

Maryland  Utah 

Michigan  Virginia  (between  Juh'  1  and  Nov.  1) 

New  Jersey  Washington 


303 


FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIHNCY 


D.  NIGHT  WORK 

I.  NIGHT  WORK  PROHIBITED  (4  States) 


IVork  Prohibited  Between 

Stale  and  Kinds  of  Establishments 

P.M. 

A.M. 

6 

6 

Massachusetts — in  textile  manufac- 
ture 

10 

After  10 

6 

Indiana — in  manufacture. 

Massachusetts — in  manufacture 
other  than  textile. 

Nebraska — m  manufacturing,  me- 
chanical, or  mercantile  establish- 
ment, hotel  or  restaurant. 

South  Carolina — in  stores 

2.  NIGHT  WORK  PERMITTED  BUT  UMITED  (3  States) 


IVork  Limited  Between 

State  and  Limitation 

P.M. 

A.M. 

8 

10 

After  10 

6 
6 

Wisconsin — Not  more  than  8  hours 
in  24  hours,  and  48  hours  in  one 
week.  But  if  work  is  carried  on 
only  one  night  in  the  week,  restric- 
tion of  hours  same  as  for  day 
work. 

Maryland — Not  more  than  8  hours 
in  24  hours. 

Connecticut — If  work  continues 
after  10  p.  m.  not  more  than  to 
make  a  total  of  10  hours  in  24 
hours  in  mercantile  establishments. 

3.  NIGHT  WORK  UNLIMITED  (42  States  and  District  of  Columbia) 


Alabama 

Arizona 

Arkansas 

California 

Colorado 

Delaware 

D.  C. 

Florida 

Georgia 

Idaho 

Illinois 


Iowa 

Kansas 

Kentucky 

Louisiana 

Maine 

Michigan 

Minnesota 

Mississippi 

Missouri 

Montana 

Nevada 


New  Hampshire 
New  Mexico 
New  Jersey 
New  York 
North  Carolina 
North  Dakota 
Ohio 

Oklahoma 
Oregon 
Pennsylvania 
Rhode  Island 


South  Carolina 

(except  in  stores) 
South  Dakota 
Tennessee 
Texas 
Utah 
Vermont 
Virginia 
Washington 
West  Virginia 
Wyoming 


304 


LAWS    REGULATING    WOMEN  S    LABOR 

II.     EXTRACTS  FROM  STATUTES 

Arizona 

Enacted  in  1909  (chap.  100,  sec.  1). 

"The  period  of  employment  of  working  women  and  other  per- 
sons who  shall  be  employed  in  working  in  the  laundry  department 
in  any  laundry  establishment,  shall  be  eight  hours  in  any  one  day, 
.  .  .  and  in  no  case  shall  the  hours  of  labor  exceed  forty-eight 
hours  in  a  week." 

Overtime  allowed  on  any  day,  provided  that  the  hours  of 
labor  shall  not  exceed  forty-eight  in  one  week. 

1.  In  order  to  obtain  one  shorter  day  in  the  week. 

2.  To  make  repairs  to  prevent  interruption  of  ordinary  running 

of  the  machinery. 

3.  To  make  up  time  lost  on  some  previous  day  of  same  week  in 

consequence  of  stopping  machinery. 

California 

Enacted  in  1911  (chap.  258,  sec.  1). 

"No  female  shall  be  employed  in  any  manufacturing,  mechani- 
cal or  mercantile  establishment,  laundry,  hotel,  or  restaurant,  or 
telegraph  or  telephone  establishment  or  office,  or  by  any  express 
or  transportation  company  in  this  state  more  than  eight  hours 
during  any  one  day  or  more  than  forty-eight  hours  in  one  week. 
The  hours  of  work  may  be  so  arranged  as  to  permit  the  employment 
of  females  at  any  time  so  that  they  shall  not  work  more  than  eight 
hours  during  the  twenty-four  hours  of  one  day,  or  forty-eight  hours 
during  any  one  week." 

(Held  constitutional.  Matter  of  Miller,  124  Pacific  Rep. 

427-) 

Exemption  allowed  for  the  harvesting,  curing,  canning  or 

drying  of  any  variety  of  perishable  fruit  or  vegetable. 

Connecticut 
First  enacted  in  1887  (chap.  62,  sec.  1),  now  embodied 
in  Acts  of  1909  (chap.  220,  sec.  1). 

".     .     .     No  woman   shall  be  employed   in  laboring  in   any 
20  305 


FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 

manufacturing  or  mechanical  establishment  more  than  ten  hours  in 
any  day  •  •  •  but  in  no  case  shall  the  hours  of  labor  exceed 
fifty-eight  in  a  calendar  week:  Provided,  That  in  case  any  employer 
in  such  establishment  shall,  on  or  before  the  first  day  of  January 
of  any  year,  give  notice  to  his  employees,  by  notices  posted  as 
hereinbefore  provided,  that  the  hours  of  labor  of  minors  under  six- 
teen years  of  age  and  of  women  employed  by  him,  as  aforesaid, 
shall  not  exceed  fifty-five  in  any  week  during  the  months  of  June, 
July,  and  August  of  the  ensuing  calendar  year,  then  said  employer 
may  employ  such  minors  and  women  not  to  exceed  sixty  hours  in 
any  week  during  said  year,  except  during  said  months  of  June,  July, 
and  August." 

Overtime  allowed  on  any  day,  provided  that  hours  of 
labor  shall  not  exceed  fifty-eight  in  one  week. 

1.  In  order  to  obtain  one  shorter  day  in  the  week. 

2.  To  make  repairs  to  prevent  interruption  of  ordinary  running 

of  the  machinery. 

3.  To  make  up  time  lost  on  some  previous  day  of  same  week  in 

consequence  of  stopping  machinery. 

(Sec.  2.)  "...  No  woman  shall  be  employed  in  laboring  in 
any  mercantile  establishment,  other  than  manufacturing  or  me- 
chanical, more  than  fifty-eight  hours  in  any  calendar  week."  (Same 
proviso  as  above  allowing  sixty  hours  in  any  week,  if  notices  are 
posted  by  January  first  that  hours  shall  not  exceed  fifty-five  in  an\' 
week  in  June,  July  and  August.) 

Exemption  allowed  between  December  17th  to  25th  if  not 
less  than  seven  holidays  with  pay  be  given  during  the  year. 

(Sec.  3.)  "...  No  woman  shall  in  any  event  be  employed  in 
laboring  in  any  such  establishment  as  is  described  in  section  two 
hereof  (mercantile,  other  than  manufacturing  or  mechanical)  after 
ten  o'clock  in  the  evening  of  any  day,  unless  the  employer  in  such 
establishment  shall,  on  such  day,  employ  two  or  more  shifts  or  sets 
of  such  employees,  in  which  event  no  one  such  shift  or  set  of  em- 
ployees shall  be  employed  during  more  than  ten  hours  of  such  day." 


3c6 


laws  regulating  women  s  labor 

Georgia* 
First  enacted  in  1889  (Code  of  State  of  Georgia,  Vol.  II. 
p.  292,  sec.  2615),  amended  in  1911  (No.  279). 

"The  hours  of  labor  required  of  all  persons  employed  in  all  cot- 
ton or  woolen  manufacturing  establishments  in  this  State,  except 
engineers,  firemen,  watchmen,  mechanics,  teamsters,  yard  employees, 
clerical  force,  and  all  help  that  may  be  needed  to  clean  up  and  make 
necessary  repairs  or  changes  in  or  of  machinery,  shall  not  exceed  ten 
hours  per  day,  or  the  same  may  be  regulated  by  employers,  so  that 
the  number  of  hours  shall  not  in  the  aggregate  exceed  sixty  hours 
per  week." 

Overtime  allowed,  to  make  up  lost  time,  not  to  exceed  ten 

days,  caused  by  accidents  or  other  unavoidable  circumstances. 

Illinois 
First  enacted  in  1909  (p.  212),  amended  by  Acts  of  1911 
(p.  328). 

"...  No  female  shall  be  employed  in  any  mechanical  or 
mercantile  establishment,  or  factory,  or  laundry,  or  hotel,  or  restau- 
rant, or  telegraph  or  telephone  establishment  or  office  thereof,  or  in 
any  place  of  amusement,  or  by  any  person,  firm  or  corporation  en- 
gaged in  any  express  or  transportation  or  public  utility  business, 
or  by  any  common  carrier,  or  in  any  public  institution,  incorporated 
or  unincorporated  in  this  State,  more  than  ten  hours  during  any  one 
day.  The  hours  of  work  may  be  so  arranged  as  to  permit  the  em- 
ployment of  females  at  any  time  so  that  they  shall  not  work  more 
than  ten  hours  during  the  twenty-four  hours  of  any  day." 

(Act  of  1909  held  constitutional,  Ritchie  &  Co.  v.  Wayman, 
244  111.  509.  Act  of  1911  held  constitutional.  People  v.  Eldering, 
98  Northeastern  Rep.  982.) 

Indiana 

Enacted  in  1894,  embodied  in  Anno.  Stat,  1908,  S.  8021 
etc. 

"No  person  or  corporation,  or  officer  or  agent  thereof,  shall 
employ  any  woman  ...  in  any  capacity  for  the  purpose  of  manu- 

*  This  statute  is  obviously  nullified  by  its  own  wording  and  is  therefore 
omitted  from  the  preceding  schedules. 

307 


FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 

facturing,  between  the  hours  of  10  o'clock  at  night  and  6  o'clock  in 
the  morning." 

Kentucky 

First  enacted  in  1912  (Senate  Bill  No.  88,  sec.  2). 

"No  female  of  whatever  age  shall  be  emplojed,  or  suffered,  or 
permitted  to  work  in  any  laundry,  bakery,  factory,  work-shop, 
store,  or  mercantile,  manufacturing  or  mechanical  establishment, 
or  hotel,  restaurant,  telephone  exchange  or  telegraph  office,  more 
than  sixty  hours  in  any  one  week,  nor  more  than  ten  hours  in  any 
one  day." 

Louisiana 
First  enacted  in  1886  (Act  No.  43),  amended  by  Acts 
of  1908  (No.  301,  sec.  4). 

"...  No  woman  shall  be  employed  in  any  of  the  places  and 
industries  enumerated  in  section  1  of  this  act  (mill,  factor\',  mine, 
packing-house,  manufacturing  establishment,  workshop,  laundry, 
millinery  or  dressmaking  store  or  mercantile  establishment  in  which 
more  than  five  persons  are  employed,  or  in  any  theater,  concert  hall 
or  in  or  about  any  place  of  amusement  where  intoxicating  liquors  are 
made  or  sold,  or  in  any  bowling-alley,  boot-blacking  establishment, 
freight  or  passenger  elevator,  or  in  the  transmission  or  distribution 
of  messages,  either  telegraph  or  telephone,  or  any  other  messages,  or 
merchandise,  or  in  any  other  occupation  not  herein  enumerated  which 
may  be  deemed  unhealthful  or  dangerous.  Agriculture  and  domestic 
industries  excepted)  for  a  longer  period  than  ten  hours  per  day  or 
sixty  hours  per  week." 

(Held  constitutional,  State  v.  Gruncwald,  Grim.  Dist.  Court, 
Judge  Joshua  G.  Baker,  decided  Apr.  20,  1911.) 

Exemption  allowed  for  stores  and  mercantile  establish- 
ments on  Saturday  nights  or  twenty  days  before  Christmas. 

Maine 
First  enacted  in  1887  (chap.  139,  sec.  1),  re-enacted  in 
Revised  Statutes,  1903,  chap.  40,  sec.  48,  amended  by  Acts 
of  1909  (chap.  70). 

308 


LAWS    REGULATING    WOMEN  S    LABOR 

"...  No  woman  shall  be  employed  in  laboring  in  any  manu- 
facturing or  mechanical  establishment  in  the  State,  more  than  ten 
hours  in  any  one  day;  .  .  .  and  in  no  case  shall  the  hours  of  labor 
exceed  58  in  a  week;  .  .  .  Provided,  however,  that  any  female  of 
eighteen  years  of  age  or  over,  may  lawfully  contract  for  such  labor 
for  any  number  of  hours  in  excess  of  ten  hours  a  day,  not  exceeding 
six  hours  in  any  one  week,  or  sixty  hours  in  any  one  year,  receiving 
additional  compensation  therefor." 

Overtime  allowed  on  any  day,  provided  hours  of  labor  do 
not  exceed  fifty-eight  in  any  week. 

1.  In  order  to  obtain  a  shorter  day  in  the  week. 

2.  To  make  repairs  to  prevent  interruption  of  the  ordinary 

running  of  the  machinery. 

3.  To  make  up  time  lost  on  previous  day  of  same  week  in 

consequence  of  stopping  machinery. 

Exemption  allowed  for  any  manufacturing  establishment 
or  business,  the  materials  and  products  of  which  are  per- 
ishable and  require  immediate  labor  thereon  to  prevent  decay 
or  damage. 

Maryland 
First  enacted  in  1887  (chap.  139,  sec.  1),  re-enacted  in 
Code  of  Pub.  Gen.  Laws,   1903,  Art.   100,  sec.  1,  amended 
by  Laws  of  1912  (section  14). 

"No  female  shall  be  employed  or  permitted  to  work  in  any 
manufacturing,  mechanical,  mercantile,  printing,  baking  or  launder- 
ing establishment  more  than  ten  hours  in  any  one  day,  nor  more  than 
sixty  hours  in  any  one  week,  nor  more  than  eight  hours  in  any  one 
day  if  any  part  of  her  work  is  done  before  six  o'clock  in  the  morning 
or  after  ten  o'clock  in  the  evening  of  the  said  day.  .  .  .  Provided 
that  in  Allegany  County  any  person  or  persons  subject  to  this 
Act  in  whose  establishment  the  average  working  day  for  the 
entire  year  does  not  exceed  nine  hours  and  in  which  the  entire  work- 
ing force  is  employed  on  full  time  for  the  entire  year  and  who,  for 
a  period  not  less  than  four  months  has  established  for  such  employees 
a  working  day  of  less  than  nine  hours,  may,  for  a  period  immediately 
thereafter,  not  exceeding  six  weeks,  employ  their  employees  for 
not  more  than  twelve  hours  in  any  one  calendar  day,  to  meet  the 

309 


FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 

exigencies  of  exceptional  seasonable  demands  upon  the  trade  on 
industry  in   which   they   are  employed." 

Exemption    allowed    for    canning,    or    preparation    for 
canning,  perishable  fruits  and  vegetables. 

iMassachusetts 

First  enacted  in  1874  (chap.  221),  now  embodied  in 
Acts  of  1909,  chap.  514,  sec.  48,  as  amended  by  Acts  of  1911 
(chap.  484,  sec.  48),  and  by  Acts  of  1912  (chap.  477). 

"...  No  woman  shall  be  employed  in  laboring  in  a  manufac- 
turing or  mechanical  establishment  more  than  ten  hours  in  any  one 
day  .  .  .  and  in  no  case  shall  the  hours  of  labor  exceed  fift\-four 
in  a  week,  except  that  in  any  such  establishment  where  the  employ- 
ment is  by  seasons,  the  number  of  such  hours  in  any  week  may 
exceed  fifty-four,  but  not  fifty-eight.  Provided,  That  the  total 
number  of  such  hours  in  any  year  shall  not  exceed  an  average  of 
54  hours  a  week  for  the  whole  year,  excluding  Sundays  and 
holidays."  "  In  any  workshop  for  making,  altering,  or  repairing  gar- 
ments, connected  with  a  mercantile  establishment,  women  shall 
not  be  employed  more  than  56  hours  in  any  one  week." 

(Held  constitutional,  Comm.  v.  Hamilton  Mfg.  Co.,  120 
Mass.  383.) 

Overtime  allowed  on  any  day,  provided  that  the  hours  of 

labor  do  not  exceed  54  in  one  week. 

1.  To  make  up  for  stopping  machinery  in  excess  of  30  minutes. 

(Sec.  47.)  "No  woman  shall  be  employed  in  laboring  in  a 
mercantile  establishment  more  than  fifty-eight  hours  in  a  week." 

(Sec.  51.)  "No  person,  and  no  agent  or  officer  of  a  person 
or  corporation,  shall  employ  a  woman  or  minor  in  any  capacity  for 
the  purpose  of  manufacturing  between  ten  o'clock  at  night  and  six 
o'clock  in  the  morning.  No  person,  and  no  agent  or  officer  of  a 
person  or  corporation  engaged  in  the  manufacture  of  textile  goods, 
shall  employ  a  woman  or  a  minor  before  six  o'clock  in  the  morning 
or  after  six  o'clock  in  the  evening." 

Michigan 
Enacted  in  1909  (Act  No.  285,  sec.  9). 
"...  No  female  shall  be  employed    in    any   factory,   mill, 
warehouse,  workshop,  clothing,  dressmaking,  or  millinery  establish- 

310 


LAWS    REGULATING    WOMEN  S    LABOR 

ment,  or  any  place  where  the  manufacture  of  any  kind  of  goods 
is  carried  on,  or  where  any  goods  are  prepared  for  manufacturing, 
or  in  any  laundry,  store,  shop,  or  any  other  mercantile  establish- 
ment, for  a  period  longer  than  an  average  of  nine  hours  in  a  day  or 
fifty-four  hours  in  any  week,  nor  more  than  ten  hours  in  any  one 
day." 

(Held  constitutional,  Withey  v.  Blocm,  163  Mich.  419.) 

Exemption   allowed   for   preserving   perishable   goods   in 

fruit   and   vegetable  canning  establishments. 

Minnesota 
Enacted  in  1909  (chap.  499,  sec.  2). 

"No  female  shall  be  employed  in  laboring  in  a  manufacturing 
or  mechanical  establishment  more  than  ten  hours  in  any  one  day, 
.  .  .  and  in  no  case  shall  the  hours  of  labor  exceed  fifty-eight  in  a 
week." 

Overtime  allowed  on  any  day,  provided  that  the  hours 

of  labor  do  not  exceed  fifty-eight  in  one  week. 

1.  In  order  to  obtain  one  shorter  day  in  the  week. 

2.  To  make  up  for  stopping  machinery  in  excess  of  thirty 

minutes. 
(Sec.  1.)     "No  female  shall  be   employed  in  laboring  in  a 
mercantile  establishment  more  than  fifty-eight  hours  in  a  week." 

Missouri 
First  enacted  in  1909  (chap.  67,  sec.  7815  of  the  Rev. 
Stat.),  re-enacted  by  Acts  of  1911  (p.  311,  sec.  1). 

No  female  shall  be  employed  in  any  manufacturing  or  mechan- 
ical and  mercantile  establishments,  laundry  or  workshop,  in  this 
State,  more  than  nine  hours  during  any  one  day,  nor  more  than 
fifty-four  hours  during  any  one  week. 

Montana 
Enacted  in  1909  (chap.  75,  sec.  1). 

On  all  lines  of  public  telephones,  operated  in  whole  or  in  part 
within  this  State,  it  shall  hereafter  be  unlawful  for  any  owner, 
lessee,  company,  or  corporation  to  hire  or  employ  any  operator 
or  operators,  other  person  or  persons,  to  run  or  operate  a  tele- 

311 


FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 

phone  board  or  boards  for  more  than  nine  (9)  hours,  in  twenty- 
four  hours  in  cities  or  towns  having  a  population  of  3,000  inhabitants 
or  over.  Provided,  however,  That  the  provisions  of  this  act  shall  not 
apply  to  any  person  or  persons,  operator  or  operators,  operating  any 
telephone  board  or  boards  more  than  nine  (9)  hours  in  each  twenty- 
four  for  the  purpose  of  relieving  another  employee  in  case  of  sick- 
ness or  other  unforeseen  cause  or  causes. 

Nebraska 
First  enacted  in   1899  (chap.   107),  now  embodied  in 
Compiled  Statutes,  1905,  sec.  7955a. 

"...  No  female  shall  be  employed  in  any  manufacturing, 
mechanical  or  mercantile  establishment,  hotel  or  restaurant  in  this 
State,  more  than  sixty  hours  during  any  one  week,  and  that  ten 
hours  shall  constitute  a  day's  labor.  The  hours  of  each  day  may  be 
so  arranged  as  to  permit  the  employment  of  such  female  at  any  time 
from  six  o'clock  a.  m.  to  ten  o'clock  p.  m.;  but  in  no  case  shall  such 
employment  exceed  ten  hours  in  any  one  day. 

(Held  constitutional  in  Wenham  v.  State,  5  Neb.  394.) 

New  Hampshire 
First  enacted  in  1887  (chap.  25,  sec.  1),  re-enacted  by 
Stat.  1907  (chap.  94). 

"No  woman  .  .  .  shall  be  employed  in  a  manufacturing  or 
mechanical  establishment  for  more  than  nine  hours  and  forty 
minutes  in  one  day  .  .  .  In  no  case  shall  the  hours  of  labor  exceed 
fifty-eight  in  one  week." 

Overtime  allowed  on  any  day,  provided  that  the  hours 
of  labor  do  not  exceed  fifty-eight  in  one  week. 

1.  In  order  to  obtain  one  shorter  day  in  the  week. 

2.  To  make  repairs  to  prevent  interruption  of  the  ordmary 

running  of  machinery. 

3.  To  make  up  time  lost  on  some  day  in  the  same  week  in 

consequence  of  stopping  machinery. 

New  Jersey 
Enacted  in  1912  (Senate  Bill  No.  61,  sec.  1). 
"No  female  shall  be  employed,  allowed  or  permitted  to  work 

312 


LAWS    REGULATING    WOMEN  S    LABOR 

in'any  manufacturing  or  mercantile  establishment,  in  any  bakery, 
laundry  or  restaurant  more  than  ten  hours  in  any  one  day,  or  more 
than  six  days,  or  sixty  hours  in  any  one  week." 

Exemption  allowed  for  mercantile  establishments  for  six 
working  days  next  preceding  Christmas,  and  for  canneries 
engaged  in  packing  a  perishable  product  such  as  fruits  or 
vegetables. 

New  York 
First  enacted  in  1899  (chap.  192,  sec.  77),  now  embodied 
in  Con.  Laws  1909,  chap.  31,  as  amended  to  Oct.  1,  1912. 
Art.  VI.  sec.  77,  78,  89. 

"...  No  woman  shall  be  employed  or  permitted  to  work  in 
any  factory  in  this  State  .  .  .  more  than  six  days  or  fifty-four 
hours  in  any  one  week;  nor  for  more  than  nine  hours  in  any  one  day 
except  as  hereinafter  provided. 

"A  female  sixteen  years  of  age  or  upwards  .  .  .  may  be  em- 
ployed in  a  factory  more  than  nine  hours  a  day:  (a)  regularly  in  not 
to  exceed  five  days  a  week,  in  order  to  make  a  short  day  or  a  holiday 
on  one  of  the  six  working  days  of  the  week;  (b)  irregularly  in  not  to 
exceed  three  days  a  week;  provided  that  no  such  person  shall  be 
required  or  permitted  to  work  more  than  ten  hours  in  any  one  day 
or  more  than  fifty-four  hours  in  any  one  week.  ..." 

Exemption  allowed  for  canning  or  preserving  perishable 

products  in  fruit  and  canning  establishments  between  June 

15th  and  October  15th. 

North  Carolina* 
First   enacted  in   1907    (chap.  463),  amended  in   1911 
(chap.  85). 

"  Not  exceeding  sixty  hours  shall  constitute  a  week's  work  in 
all  factories  and  manufacturing  establishments  of  this  State.  .  .  . 
Provided,  that  this  section  shall  not  apply  to  engineers,  firemen, 
machinists,  superintendents,  overseers,  section  and  yard  hands, 
office  men,  watchmen  or  repairers  of  breakdowns." 

*This  statute  is  obviously  nullified  by  its  own  wording.     It  is  there- 
fore omitted  in  the  preceding  schedules. 


fatigue  and  efficiency 

North  Dakota* 

First  enacted  in  1877  (Penal  Code,  sec.  739),  now  em- 
bodied in  Revised  Code,  1905,  sec.  9440. 

"Every  owner,  stockholder,  overseer,  employer,  clerk  or  foreman 
of  any  manufactory,  workshop,  or  other  place  used  for  mechanical 
or  manufacturing  purposes,  who,  having  control,  shall  compel  any 
woman  ...  to  labor  in  any  day  exceeding  ten  hours,  shall  be 
deemed  guilty  of  a  misdemeanor." 

Ohio 
First  enacted  in  1911.     Gen.  Code.  Sec.  1008. 

"Females  over  eighteen  years  of  age  shall  not  be  employed 
or  permitted  or  suffered  to  work  in  or  in  connection  with  an\'  factory, 
workshop,  telephone  or  telegraph  office,  millinery  or  dressmaking 
establishment,  restaurant  or  in  the  distributing  or  transmission 
of  messages  more  than  ten  hours  in  any  one  day,  or  more  than  fifty- 
four  hours  in  any  one  week." 

(Held  constitutional,  exparte  Hawley,  98  Northeastern  Rep. 
1126.) 

Exemption   for  canneries  or  establishments  engaged  in 
preparing  for  use  perishable  goods. 

Oklahoma* 

First  enacted  in  1890  (Stat.  1890,  chap.  25,  article  58, 
sec.  10),  now  embodied  in  Revised  Statutes,  1903,  chap.  25, 
article  58,  sec.  729. 

"Every  owner,  stockholder,  overseer,  employer,  clerk,  or 
foreman  of  any  manufactory,  workshop,  or  other  place  used  for 
mechanical  or  manufacturing  purposes,  who,  having  control,  shall 
compel  any  woman  ...  to  labor  in  any  day  exceeding  ten  hours, 

*  This  statute  is  nullified  by  its  own  wording,  since  the  misdemeanor 
consists  in  compelling  any  woman  to  labor  more  than  ten  hours.  It  is  there- 
fore omitted  in  the  preceding  schedules. 

3>4 


LAWS    REGULATING    WOMEN  S    LABOR 

shall  be  deemed  guilty  of  a  misdemeanor,  and  upon  conviction  shall 
be  punished  by  fine  not  exceeding  one  hundred  and  not  less  than  ten 
dollars." 

Oregon 

Enacted  in  1903,  amended  by  acts  of  1909,  chap.  138. 

"No  female  shall  be  employed  in  any  manufacturing,  mechani- 
cal or  mercantile  establishment,  laundry,  hotel  or  restaurant,  or 
telegraph  or  telephone  establishment  or  office,  or  by  any  express 
or  transportation  company  in  this  State  more  than  ten  hours  during 
any  one  day  or  more  than  sixty  hours  in  one  week.  The  hours  of 
work  may  be  so  arranged  as  to  permit  the  employment  of  females  at 
any  time  so  that  they  shall  not  work  more  than  ten  hours  during 
the  twenty-four  of  one  day,  or  sixty  hours  during  any  one  week." 

(Held  constitutional,  Muller  v.  Oregon,  208  U.  S.  412.) 

Pennsylvania 
First  enacted  in  1897  (No.  26),  and  re-enacted  in  Laws 
of  1909. 

"...  The  term  'establishment'  where  used  for  the  purpose 
of  this  act,  shall  mean  any  place  within  this  Commonwealth  other 
than  where  domestic,  coal  mining,  or  farm  labor  is  employed;  where 
men,  women,  or  children  are  engaged,  and  paid  a  salary  or  wages, 
by  any  person,  firm  or  corporation,  and  where  such  men,  women,  or 
children  are  employees,  in  the  general  acceptance  of  the  term. 

".  .  .  No  female  shall  be  employed  in  any  establishment  for 
a  longer  period  than  sixty  hours  in  any  one  week,  nor  for  a  longer 
period  than  twelve  hours  in  any  one  day." 

(Held  constitutional  in  Comm.  v.  Beatty,  15  Pa.  Superior  Ct. 
5.) 

Rhode  Island 
First  enacted  in  1885  (chap.  519,  sec.  1)  now  embodied 
in  Laws  of  1909  (chap.  384). 

"...  No  woman  shall  be  employed  in  laboring  in  any  manu- 
facturing or  mechanical  establishment  more  than  fifty-six  hours  in 

315 


FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 

any  one  week;  and  in  no  case  shall  the  hours  of  labor  exceed  ten 
hours  in  any  one  day." 

Overtime  allowed  on  any  day,  provided  that  the  hours 
of  labor  shall  not  exceed  fifty-six  in  one  week. 

1.  In  order  to  obtain  one  shorter  day  in  the  week. 

2.  To  make  repairs  to  prevent  interruption  of  the  ordinary 

running  of  machinery. 

3.  To  make  up  time  lost  on  some  previous  day  of  the  same 

week  in  consequence  of  stopping  machinery. 

South  Carolina 
First  enacted  in  1907  (No.  233),  amended  in  1909  (Act 
No.  121,  sec.  1).* 

"...  Ten  hours  a  day  or  sixty  hours  a  week,  provided,  how- 
ever, that  the  hours  of  a  single  day  shall  not  exceed  eleven  hours, 
except  for  the  purpose  of  making  up  lost  time  as  hereinafter  pro- 
vided, shall  constitute  the  hours  for  working  for  all  operatives  and 
employees  in  cotton  and  woolen  manufacturing  establishments  en- 
gaged in  the  manufacture  of  yarns,  cloth,  hosiery,  and  other  products 
for  merchandise,  except  mechanics,  engineers,  firemen,  watchmen, 
teamsters,  yard  employees,  and  clerical  force.  All  contracts  for 
longer  hours  of  work  other  than  herein  provided  in  said  manufactur- 
ing establishments  shall  be,  and  the  same  are  hereby,  declared  null 
and  void;  .  .  .  Provided,  That  nothing  herein  contained  shall  be 
construed  as  forbidding  or  preventing  any  such  manufacturing 
company  from  making  up  lost  time  to  the  extent  of  sixty  hours  per 
annum,  where  such  lost  time  has  been  caused  by  accident  or  other 
unavoidable  cause." 

Enacted  in  1911  (No.  83,  sec.  1). 

"...  The  hours  of  labor  of  women  employed  in  mercantile 
establishments  in  this  State  shall  be  limited  to  60  hours  per  week,  not 

*  This  statute  is  obviously  nullified  by  its  own  wording.  It  has  there- 
fore been  omitted  in  the  preceding  schedules. 

"  It  has  been  utterly  impossible  to  bring  about  any  degree  of  enforce- 
ment of  the  general  law  relating  to  hours  of  labor  in  textile  plants,  for  the 
reason  that  the  law,  itself,  is  well-nigh  impossible  of  interpretation,  and  is 
so  constructed  as  to  make  it  absolutely  impossible  to  ascertain  whether  there 
has  been  a  violation  of  the  intent  and  purposes  of  the  law  or  not."  Third 
Annual  Report  of  the  South  Carolina  Commissioner  of  Agriculture,  Com- 
merce and  industries.     Labor  Division,  191 1,  p.  4. 

316 


LAWS    REGULATING    WOMEN  S    LABOR 

to  exceed  12  hours  in  any  one  day,  and  .  .  .  such  female  employees 
shall  not  be  required  to  work  later  than  the  hour  of  ten  o'clock 
p.  m." 

South   Dakota* 

First  enacted  in  1877  (Penal  Code,  sec.  739),  now  em- 
bodied in  Revised  Code,  1903  (Penal  Code,  sec.  764). 

"Every  owner,  stockholder,  overseer,  employer,  clerk  or  fore- 
man, of  any  manufactory,  workshop,  or  other  place  used  for  mechan- 
ical or  manufacturing  purposes,  who,  having  control,  shall  compel 
any  woman  ...  to  labor  in  any  day  exceeding  ten  hours,  shall  be 
deemed  guilty  of  a  misdemeanor." 

Tennessee 
Enacted  in  1907  (chap.  308,  sec.  3). 

"it  shall  be  unlawful  for  any  person,  firm,  or  corporation  to 
employ  in  any  manufacturing  establishment  in  this  State  any  female 
.  .  .  more  than  sixty  (60)  hours  in  any  one  week." 

Utah 
Enacted  in  1911  (chap.  133). 

"No  female  shall  be  employed  in  any  manufacturing,  mechani- 
cal, or  mercantile  establishment,  laundry,  hotel,  or  restaurant,  or 
telegraph  or  telephone  establishment,  hospital  or  office,  or  by  any 
express  or  transportation  company  in  this  State,  more  than  nine 
hours  during  any  one  day,  or  more  than  fifty-four  hours  in  any  one 
week,  except  in  cases  of  emergency  in  hospitals  and  in  cases  of 
emergency  or  where  life  or  property  is  in  imminent  danger." 

Exemption  allowed  for  materials  liable  to  spoil  by  the 

enforcement  of  this  Act. 

Virginia 

First  enacted  in  1890  (chap.  193,  sec.  1),  now  re-enacted 
and  amended  by  Acts  of  1912,  Chap.  248,  sec.  2. 

No  female  .  .  .  shall  work  as  an  operative  in  any  factory, 
workshop,  mercantile  or  in  any  manufacturing  establishment  in 

*  This  statute  is  obviously  nullified  by  its  own  wording  since  the  mis- 
demeanor consists  in  compelling  any  woman  to  labor  more  than  ten  hours. 
it  is  therefore  omitted  in  the  preceding  schedules. 


FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 

this  State  more  than  ten  hours  in  any  one  day  of  twenty-four  hours. 
All  contracts  made  or  to  be  made  for  the  employment  of  an>'  female 
...  as  an  operative  in  any  factory,  workshop,  mercantile,  or  in  any 
manufacturing  establishment  to  work  more  than  ten  hours  in  any 
one  day  of  twenty-four  hours,  are  and  shall  be  void. 
Exemptions  allowed  for 

1.  Factories  engaged  exclusively  in  packing  fruits  or  vege- 
tables between  July  1st  and  Nov.  1st. 

2.  Mercantile  establishments  on  Saturdays,  or  in  towns  of 
less  than  2,000  inhabitants,  or  in  country  districts. 

3.  Females  employed  full  time  as  book-keepers,  stenographers, 

cashiers  or  office-assistants. 

Washington 
First  enacted  in  1901  (Stat.  1901,  chap.  68,  sec.  1). 

(Act  of  1910  held  constitutional  in  State  v.  Buchanan,  29  Wash. 
603.) 

Amended  in  1911  (chap.  37). 

"No  female  shall  be  employed  in  any  mechanical  or  mercantile 
establishment,  laundry,  hotel  or  restaurant  in  this  State  more  than 
eight  hours  during  any  day.  The  hours  of  work  may  be  so  arranged 
as  to  permit  the  employment  of  females  at  any  time  so  that  they 
shall  not  work  more  than  eight  hours  during  the  twenty-four.  .  .  . 
If  it  shall  be  adjudicated  that  the  foregoing  proviso  and  excep- 
tion shall  be  unconstitutional  and  invalid  for  any  reason,  an  adjudi- 
cation of  invalidity  of  said  proviso  or  of  any  part  of  this  act  shall  not 
affect  the  validity  of  the  act  as  a  whole  or  any  other  part  thereof." 

(Act  of  1911  held  constitutional,  State  z).  Somerville,  122  Pacif. 
Rep.  324.) 

Exemption  allowed  for  harvesting,  packing,  curing, 
canning  or  drying  any  variety  of  perishable  fruit  or  vegetable, 
and  canning  fish  or  shell-fish. 

Wisconsin 
First  enacted  in  1867  (chap.  83,  sec.  1),  embodied  in 
Stat,  of  1898  (sec.  1728),  amended  in  1911  (chap.  548). 

"No  female  shall  be  employed  or  be  permitted  to  work  in  an\' 
manufacturing,  mechanical  or  mercantile  establishment,  laundrv 

318 


LAWS    REGULATING    WOMEN  S    LABOR 

or  restaurant,  or  confectionery  store,  or  telegraph  or  telephone 
office  or  exchange,  or  by  any  express  or  transportation  company, 
in  this  State,  more  than  ten  hours  during  any  one  day,  or  more 
than  fifty-five  hours  in  any  one  week.  The  hours  may  be  so 
arranged  as  to  permit  the  employment  of  females  at  any  time, 
but  they  shall  not  work  more  than  ten  hours  during  the  twenty- 
four  hours  of  any  one  day,  nor  more  than  fifty-five  hours  during 
one  week,  if,  however,  any  part  of  a  female's  daily  employment 
is  performed  between  the  hours  of  eight  o'clock  p.  m.  and  six  o'clock 
a.  m.  of  the  following  day,  all  the  employment  shall  be  considered 
night  work,  and  no  such  female  so  employed  at  night  work  shall  be 
employed  or  permitted  to  work  thereat  more  than  eight  hours  in 
any  twenty-four  hours,  nor  more  than  forty-eight  hours  during  one 
week.  If  any  such  female  is  employed  not  more  than  one  night  in 
the  week  (after  eight  o'clock  as  herein  provided),  then  such  female 
may  be  permitted  to  work  fifty-five  hours  in  any  such  week." 


3J9 


APPENDIX  B 

OPINION  OF  THE   SUPREME  COURT  OF  THE 
UNITED  STATES 

In  the  Case  of  Muller  v.  State  of  Oregon 
Delivered  by  Mr.  Justice  Brewer,  February  24,  1908 

On  February  19,  1903,  the  legislature  of  the  State  of  Oregon 
passed  an  act  (Session  Laws,  1903,  p.  148)  the  first  section  of  which 
is  in  these  words: 

"Sec.  1.  That  no  female  (shall)  be  employed  in  any  mechanical 
establishment,  or  factory,  or  laundry  in  this  State  more  than  ten 
hours  during  any  one  day.  The  hours  of  work  may  be  so  arranged 
as  to  permit  the  employment  of  females  at  any  time  so  that  they 
shall  not  work  more  than  ten  hours  during  the  twenty-four  hours 
of  any  one  day." 

Section  3  made  a  violation  of  the  provisions  of  the  prior  sections 
a  misdemeanor,  subject  to  a  fine  of  not  less  than  ^10  nor  more  than 
S25.  On  September  18,  1905,  an  information  was  filed  in  the  Circuit 
Court  of  the  State  for  the  county  of  Multnomah,  charging  that  the 
defendant  "on  the  4th  day  of  September,  a.  d.  1905,  in  the  county 
of  Multnomah  and  State  of  Oregan,  then  and  there  being  the  owner 
of  a  laundry,  known  as  the  Grand  Laundry,  in  the  city  of  Portland, 
and  the  employer  of  females  therein,  did  then  and  there  unlawfully 
permit  and  suffer  one  Joe  Hasclbock,  he,  the  said  Joe  Haselbock, 
then  and  there  being  an  overseer,  superintendent  and  agent  of 
said  Curt  Muller,  in  the  said  Grand  Laundry,  to  require  a  female, 
to  wit,  one  Mrs.  E.  Gotcher,  to  work  more  than  ten  hours  in  said 
Laundry  on  said  4th  day  of  September,  a.  d.  1905,  contrary  to  the 
statutes  in  such  cases  made  and  provided,  and  against  the  peace 
and  dignity  of  the  State  of  Oregon." 

A  trial  resulted  in  a  verdict  against  the  defendant,  who  was 
sentenced  to  pay  a  fine  of  $10.  The  Supreme  Court  of  the  State 
affirmed  the  conviction  (48  Ore.  252),  whereupon  the  case  was 
brought  here  on  writ  of  error. 

320 


OPINION    OF    SUPREME    COURT   OF    THE    UNITED    STATES 

The  single  question  is  the  constitutionality  of  the  statute 
under  which  the  defendant  was  convicted  so  far  as  it  affects  the 
work  of  a  female  in  a  laundry.  That  it  does  not  conflict  with  any 
provisions  of  the  State  constitution  is  settled  by  the  decision  of  the 
Supreme  Court  of  the  State.  The  contentions  of  the  defendant, 
now  plaintiff  in  error,  are  thus  stated  in  his  brief: 

"(1)  Because  the  statute  attempts  to  prevent  persons,  sui 
juris,  from  making  their  own  contracts,  and  thus  violates  the  pro- 
visions of  the  Fourteenth  Amendment,  as  follows: 

"'No  State  shall  make  or  enforce  any  law  which  shall  abridge 
the  privileges  or  immunities  of  citizens  of  the  United  States;  nor 
shall  any  State  deprive  any  person  of  life,  liberty,  or  property, 
without  due  process  of  law;  nor  deny  to  any  person  within  its 
jurisdiction  the  equal  protection  of  the  laws.' 

"(2)  Because  the  statute  does  not  apply  equally  to  all  persons 
similarly  situated,  and  is  class  legislation. 

"(3)  The  statute  is  not  a  valid  exercise  of  the  police  power. 
The  kinds  of  work  prescribed  are  not  unlawful,  nor  are  they  declared 
to  be  immoral  or  dangerous  to  the  public  health;  nor  can  such  a 
law  be  sustained  on  the  ground  that  it  is  designed  to  protect  women 
on  account  of  their  sex.  There  is  no  necessary  or  reasonable  con- 
nection between  the  limitation  prescribed  by  the  act  and  the  public 
health,  safety,  or  welfare." 

It  is  the  law  of  Oregon  that  women,  whether  married  or  single, 
have  equal  contractual  and  personal  rights  with  men.  As  said  by 
Chief  Justice  Wolverton,  in  First  National  Bank  v.  Leonard,  36  Ore. 
390,  396,  after  a  review  of  the  various  statutes  of  the  State  upon 
the  subject: 

"We  may  therefore  say  with  perfect  confidence  that,  with 
these  three  sections  upon  the  statute  book,  the  wife  can  deal,  not 
only  with  her  separate  property,  acquired  from  whatever  source, 
in  the  same  manner  as  her  husband  can  with  property  belonging 
to  him,  but  that  she  may  make  contracts  and  incur  liabilities,  and 
the  same  may  be  enforced  against  her,  the  same  as  if  she  were  a 
feme  sole.  There  is  now  no  residuum  of  civil  disability  resting 
upon  her  which  is  not  recognized  as  existing  against  the  husband. 
The  current  runs  steadily  and  strongly  in  the  direction  of  the 
emancipation  of  the  wife,  and  the  policy,  as  disclosed  by  all  recent 
legislation  upon  the  subject  in  this  State,  is  to  place  her  upon  the 

2  1  321 


FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 

same  footing  as  if  she  were  d^feme  sole,  not  only  with  respect  to  her 
separate  property,  but  as  it  affects  her  right  to  make  binding  con- 
tracts; and  the  most  natural  corollary  to  the  situation  is  that  the 
remedies  for  the  enforcement  of  liabilities  incurred  are  made  co- 
extensive and  co-equal  with  such  enlarged  conditions." 

It  thus  appears  that,  putting  to  one  side  the  elective  franchise, 
in  the  matter  of  personal  and  contractual  rights  they  stand  on  the 
same  plane  as  the  other  sex.  Their  rights  in  these  respects  can  no 
more  be  infringed  than  the  equal  rights  of  their  brothers.  We 
held  in  Lochner  v.  New  York,  198  U.  S.  45,  that  a  law  providing 
that  no  laborer  shall  be  required  or  permitted  to  work  in  bakeries 
more  than  sixty  hours  in  a  week  or  ten  hours  in  a  day  was  not  as 
to  men  a  legitimate  exercise  of  the  police  power  of  the  State,  but 
an  unreasonable,  unnecessary,  and  arbitrary  interference  with  the 
right  and  liberty  of  the  individual  to  contract  in  relation  to  his 
labor,  and  as  such  was  in  conflict  with,  and  void  under,  the  Federal 
Constitution.  That  decision  is  invoked  by  plaintiff  in  error  as 
decisive  of  the  question  before  us.  But  this  assumes  that  the 
difference  between  the  sexes  does  not  justify  a  diflFerent  rule  respect- 
ing a  restriction  of  the  hours  of  labor. 

In  patent  cases  counsel  are  apt  to  open  the  argument  with  a 
discussion  of  the  state  of  the  art.  it  may  not  be  amiss,  in  the 
present  case,  before  examining  the  constitutional  question,  to  notice 
the  course  of  legislation  as  well  as  expressions  of  opinion  from  other 
than  judicial  sources.  In  the  brief  filed  by  Mr.  Louis  D.  Brandeis, 
for  the  defendant  in  error,  is  a  very  copious  collection  of  all  these 
matters,  an  epitome  of  which  is  found  in  the  margin.* 

*The  following  legislation  of  the  States  impose  restriction  in  some  form 
or  another  upon  the  hours  of  labor  that  may  be  required  of  women:  Mass- 
achusetts, 1874,  Rev.  Laws  1902,  chap.  106,  sec.  24;  Rhode  Island,  1885,  Acts 
and  Resolves  1902,  chap.  994,  p.  73;  Louisiana,  1886,  Rev.  Laws  1904,  vol.  i, 
sec.  4,  p.  989;  Connecticut,  1887,  Gen.  Stat,  revision  1902,  sec.  4691;  Maine, 
1887,  Rev.  Stat.  1903,  chap.  40,  sec.  48;  New  Hampshire,  1887,  Laws  1907, 
chap.  94,  p.  95;  Maryland,  1888,  Pub.  Gen.  Laws  1903,  art.  100,  sec.  1; 
Virginia,  1890,  Code  1904.  tit.  51  a,  chap.  178  a,  sec.  3657  b;  Pennsylvania 
1897,  Laws  1905,  No.  226,  p.  352;  New  York,  1899,  Laws  1907,  chap.  507, 
sec.  77,  subdiv.  3,  p.  1078;  Nebraska,  1899,  Comp.  Stat.  1905,  sec.  7955,  p. 
1986;  Washington,  Stat.  1901,  chap.  68,  sec.  1,  p.  118;  Colorado,  Acts  1903, 
chap.  138,  sec.  3,  p.  310;  New  Jersey,  1892,  Gen.  Stat.  1895,  p.  2350,  sees.  66 
and  67;  Oklahoma,  1890,  Rev.  Stat.  1903,  chap.  25,  art.  58,  sec.  729;  North 
Dakota,  1877,  Rev.  Code  1905,  sec.  9440;  South  Dakota,  1877.  Rev.  Code 


322 


OPINION    OF    SUPREME    COURT    OF    THE    UNITED    STATES 

While  there  have  been  but  few  decisions  bearing  directly  upon 
the  question,  the  following  sustain  the  constitutionality  of  such 
legislation:  Commonwealth  v.  Hamilton  Mfg.  Co.,  125  Mass.  383; 
PVenham  v.  State,  65  Neb.  394,  400,  406;  State  v.  Buchanan,  29 
Wash.  602;  Commonwealth  v.  Beatty,  15  Pa.  Sup.  Ct.  5,  17;  against 
them  in  the  case  of  Ritchie  v.  People,  155  111.  98. 

The  legislation  and  opinions  referred  to  in  the  margin  may  not 
be,  technically  speaking,  authorities,  and  in  them  is  little  or  no 
discussion  of  the  constitutional  question  presented  to  us  for  deter- 
mination, yet  they  are  significant  of  a  widespread  belief  that  woman's 
physical  structure,  and  the  functions  she  performs  in  consequence 
thereof,  justify  special  legislation  restricting  or  qualifying  the  con- 
ditions under  which  she  should  be  permitted  to  toil.  Constitutional 
questions,  it  is  true,  are  not  settled  by  even  a  consensus  of  present 
public  opinion,  for  it  is  the  peculiar  value  of  a  written  constitution 
that  it  places  in  unchanging  form  limitations  upon  legislative  action, 
and  thus  gives  a  permanence  and  stability  to  popular  government 
which  otherwise  would  be  lacking.  At  the  same  time,  when  a 
question  of  fact  is  debated  and  debatable,  and  the  extent  to  which  a 
special  constitutional  limitation  goes  is  affected  by  the  truth  in 
respect  to  that  fact,  a  widespread  and  long  continued  belief  con- 

(Penal  Code,  sec.  764),  p.  1185;  Wisconsin,  1867,  Code  1898,  sec.  1728; 
South  Carolina,  Acts  1907,  No.  233. 

in  foreign  legislation  Mr.  Brandeis  calls  attention  to  these  statutes: 
Great  Britain,  1844,  Law  1901,  1  Edw.  Vli,  chap.  22;  France,  1848,  Act 
Nov.  2,  1892,  and  March  30,  1900;  Switzerland,  Canton  of  Glarus,  1848. 
Federal  Law  1877,  art.  2,  sec.  1;  Austria,  1855,  Acts  1897,  art  96  a,  sees.  1  to  3; 
Holland  1889,  art.  5,  sec.  1;  Italy,  June  19,  1902,  art.  7;  Germany,  Laws  1891. 

Then  follow  extracts  from  over  ninety  reports  of  committees,  bureaus 
of  statistics,  commissioners  of  hygiene,  inspectors  of  factories,  both  in  this 
country  and  in  Europe,  to  the  effect  that  long  hours  of  labor  are  dangerous 
for  women,  primarily  because  of  their  special  physical  organization.  The 
matter  is  discussed  in  these  reports  in  different  aspects,  but  all  agree  as  to  the 
danger.  It  would  of  course  take  too  much  space  to  give  these  reports  in 
detail.  Following  them  are  extracts  from  similar  reports  discussing  the 
general  benefits  of  short  hours  from  an  economic  aspect  of  the  question, 
in  many  of  these  reports  individual  instances  are  given  tending  to  support 
the  general  conclusion.  Perhaps  the  general  scope  and  character  of  all 
these  reports  may  be  summed  up  in  what  an  inspector  for  Hanover  says: 
"The  reasons  for  the  reduction  of  the  working  day  to  ten  hours — (a)  the 
physical  organization  of  woman,  (b)  her  maternal  functions,  (c)  the  rearing 
and  education  of  the  children,  (d)  the  maintenance  of  the  home — are  all  so 
important  and  so  far-reaching  that  the  need  for  such  reduction  need  hardly 
be  discussed." 


FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 

cerning  it  is  worthy  of  consideration.  We  take  judicial  cognizance 
of  all  matters  of  general  knowledge. 

It  is  undoubtedl}'  true,  as  more  than  once  declared  b\'  this 
court,  that  the  general  right  to  contract  in  relation  to  one's  business 
is  part  of  the  liberty  of  the  individual,  protected  by  the  Fourteenth 
Amendment  to  the  Federal  Constitution;  \'et  it  is  equally  well 
settled  that  this  liberty  is  not  absolute  and  extending  to  all  contracts, 
and  that  a  State  may,  without  conflicting  with  the  provisions  of  the 
Fourteenth  Amendment,  restrict  in  many  respects  the  individual's 
power  of  contract.  Without  stopping  to  discuss  at  length  the 
extent  to  which  a  State  may  act  in  this  respect,  we  refer  to  the 
following  cases  in  which  the  question  has  been  considered:  Allgeyer 
V.  Louisiana,  165  U.  S.  578;  Holden  v.  Hardy,  169  U.  S.  366;  Lochner 
V.  New  York,  supra. 

That  woman's  physical  structure  and  the  performance  of 
maternal  functions  place  her  at  a  disadvantage  in  the  struggle  for 
subsistence  is  obvious.  This  is  especially  true  when  the  burdens 
of  motherhood  are  upon  her.  Even  when  they  are  not,  by  abundant 
testimony  of  the  medical  fraternity  continuance  for  a  long  time 
on  her  feet  at  work,  repeating  this  from  day  to  day,  tends  to  injur- 
ious effects  upon  the  body,  and  as  healthy  mothers  are  essential 
to  vigorous  oflfspring,  the  physical  wellbeing  of  woman  becomes  an 
object  of  public  interest  and  care  in  order  to  preserve  the  strength 
and  vigor  of  the  race. 

Still  again,  history  discloses  the  fact  that  woman  has  alwa\s 
been  dependent  upon  man.  He  established  his  control  at  the  out- 
set by  superior  physical  strength,  and  this  control  in  various  forms, 
with  diminishing  intensity,  has  continued  to  the  present.  As 
minors,  though  not  to  the  same  extent,  she  has  been  looked  upon 
in  the  courts  as  needing  especial  care  that  her  rights  may  be  pre- 
served. Education  was  long  denied  her,  and  while  now  the  doors 
of  the  school-room  are  opened  and  her  opportunities  for  acquiring 
knowledge  are  great,  yet  even  with  that  and  the  consequent  increase 
of  capacity  for  business  affairs  it  is  still  true  that  in  the  struggle  for 
subsistence  she  is  not  an  equal  competitor  with  her  brother.  Though 
limitations  upon  personal  and  contractual  rights  may  be  removed 
by  legislation,  there  is  that  in  her  disposition  and  habits  of  life 
which  will  operate  against  a  full  assertion  of  those  rights.  She  will 
still  be  where  some  legislation  to  protect  her  seems  necessary  to 

324 


OPINION    OF    SUPREME    COURT    OF    THE    UNITED    STATES 

secure  a  real  equality  of  right.  Doubtless  there  are  individual 
exceptions,  and  there  are  many  respects  in  which  she  has  an  advan- 
tage over  him;  but  looking  at  it  from  the  viewpoint  of  the  effort 
to  maintain  an  independent  position  in  life,  she  is  not  upon  an 
equality.  Differentiated  by  these  matters  from  the  other  sex, 
she  is  properly  placed  in  a  class  by  herself,  and  legislation  designed 
for  her  protection  may  be  sustained,  even  when  like  legislation  is 
not  necessary  for  men  and  could  not  be  sustained.  It  is  impossible 
to  close  one's  eyes  to  the  fact  that  she  still  looks  to  her  brother  and 
depends  upon  him.  Even  though  all  restrictions  on  political,  per- 
sonal, and  contractual  rights  were  taken  away,  and  she  stood,  so 
far  as  statutes  are  concerned,  upon  an  absolutely  equal  plane  with 
him,  it  would  still  be  true  that  she  is  so  constituted  that  she  will 
rest  upon  and  look  to  him  for  protection;  that  her  physical  structure 
and  a  proper  discharge  of  her  maternal  functions— having  in  view 
not  merely  her  own  health,  but  the  well-being  of  the  race — justify 
legislation  to  protect  her  from  the  greed  as  well  as  the  passion 
of  man.  The  limitations  which  this  statute  places  upon  her  con- 
tractual powers,  upon  her  right  to  agree  with  her  employer  as  to 
the  time  she  shall  labor,  are  not  imposed  solely  for  her  benefit, 
but  also  largely  for  the  benefit  of  all.  Many  words  cannot  make  this 
plainer.  The  two  sexes  differ  in  structure  of  body,  in  the  functions 
to  be  performed  by  each,  in  the  amount  of  physical  strength,  in 
the  capacity  for  long-continued  labor,  particularly  when  done 
standing,  the  influence  of  vigorous  health  upon  the  future  well- 
being  of  the  race,  the  self-reliance  which  enables  one  to  assert 
full  rights,  and  in  the  capacity  to  maintain  the  struggle  for  sub- 
sistence. This  difference  justifies  a  difference  in  legislation  and 
upholds  that  which  is  designed  to  compensate  for  some  of  the 
burdens  which  rest  upon  her. 

We  have  not  referred  in  this  discussion  to  the  denial  of  the 
elective  franchise  in  the  State  of  Oregon,  for  while  that  may  dis- 
close a  lack  of  political  equality  in  all  things  with  her  brother, 
that  is  not  of  itself  decisive.  The  reason  runs  deeper,  and  rests 
in  the  inherent  difference  between  the  two  sexes,  and  in  the  different 
functions  in  life  which  they  perform. 

For  these  reasons,  and  without  questioning  in  an\'  respect  the 
decision  in  Lochner  v.  New   York,  we  are  of  the  opinion  that  it 


325 


FATIGUE    AND    EFFICIENCY 

cannot  be  adjudged  that  the  act  in  question  is  in  conflict  with  the 
Federal  Constitution,  so  far  as  it  respects  the  work  of  a  female 
in  a  laundry,  and  the  judgment  of  the  Supreme  Court  of  Oregon  is 

Affirmed. 
True  Copy. 

Test: 

JAMES  H.  McKENNEY, 

Clerk,  Supreme  Court,  U.  S. 


326 


INDEX 


INDEX 


Abbe,  E.:  eiHciency  and  length  of 
workday,  155,  163;  the  opti- 
mum of  production,  165;  work- 
ing capacity  and  its  adjust- 
ment to  speed,  206;  Zeiss  Opti- 
cal Works  study,  155-167 

Accidents,  industrial,  and  their 
hours  of  incidence:  activity 
rate,  relation  to,  78;  American 
Journal  of  Sociology,  75;  Bel- 
gian statistics,  74;  cotton  mills, 
76,  77;  earliest  statistics  as  to 
hours  of  incidence,  72;  factors, 
78-79;  fatigue,  7i-72,_  78-79; 
French  factory  statistics,  74; 
general  manufacture,  76,  77; 
German  statistics,  72-74; 
hours  when  most  frequent,  73- 
76;  Illinois  accidents  by  hour  of 
day,  7s;  Imbert,  Prof.,  74;  In- 
diana, 76,  77;  insurance  sta- 
tistics, 72-74;  Itahan  railroad 
machine  shops,  75;  metal 
workers,  76,  77;  need  of  scien- 
tific examination,  79;  speed  fac- 
tor, 78-79;  United  States,  75, 
76,  77;  Wisconsin  Bureau  of 
Labor,  75,  76 

Acidity  of  Fatigued  Muscle,  25 

Act  or  God,  202 

American  Journal  of  Sociology:  in- 
dustrial accidents,  75 

American  Telephone  and  Tele- 
graph Company,  49 

AnABOLISM,  12,  21 

Animals:  death  from  exhaustion, 
13;  measurement  of  muscular 
fatigue,  14-18 

Anti-toxin  of  Fatigue,  26,  27 

Arsenal,  Waterto\vn,  201-202 

Art  of  Cutting  Metals,  195 


Ashley,  Lord  (Shaftesbury),  6,  72; 
argument  against  long  hours, 
128;  leadership  in  legislation 
in  1844,  124,  129 

Atlantic  Mills:  Lawrence,  Mass., 
131-132 

Attention:  definition,  68-69;  ef- 
fect of  noise,  69;  fatigue  of,  69; 
fatigue  in  school  children,  117 

Auditing:  overtime,  87 

Augmentation  of  Working  Pow- 
er, 35-36,  38 

Australia:  shorter  hours,  167-168 

Austrian  Sickness  Insurance  So- 
cieties:  morbidity,  42 

AuTOM.\Tic  Adaptation  of  worker 
to  shorter  hours,  163,  165 

Bakers'  Ten-hour  Law,  246-247 

Baltimore  Canneries,  63 

Bargaining:  collective   208-210 

Barth,  C.  G.,  197 

Basket  making:  Delaware  law,  187 

Beelitz  Sanitarium,  102,  103,  104, 
105 

Belgium.  See  Engis  Chemical 
Works 

Bell  Telephone  Compan-y:  To- 
ronto controversy,  7,48-49,  108 

Belting:   maintenance,  207-208 

Berlin:  Beelitz  sanitarium,  102; 
factory  inspectors'  examina- 
tion, 238;  heart  disease  among 
working  people,  105;  labor  con- 
ference, March,  1890,  261 

Berne  International  Conv^ention 
on  Night  Work,  248,  259-265; 
United  States'  position,  269 

Bethlehem  Steel  Works,  195-200 


329 


INDEX 


BiDDEFORD,  Maine:  infant  mortal- 
ity, 91,  92 

BiNSWANGER,  103 

Birds:  exhaustion  after  flight,  31 

Birth  Rate,  95-96 

Bituminous  Coal  Mining  in 
United  States:  table  of  out- 
put, 170-172 

Blood:  effect  of  diminished  circu- 
lation, 31;  medium  for  carry- 
ing nutritive  materials,  12,  23; 
medium  for  carrying  chemical 
wastes,  12,  15,  17,  24 

Bookbinding  Trade:  overtime,  84, 
85,271 

Borderland  of  Illne^^s,  108,  in 
Box  Making.     See  Paper  box  mak- 
ing 
Boys:   long  hours  still  legal,  4;    in 
rubber    goods    manufacturing, 

234 
Brandeis,  L.  D.:    new  defense  of 
labor  laws,   252;    Oregon  case, 
251-252;      scientific     manage- 
ment, 192,  194 
Breakdown:    contributory  causes, 
278,281;  data  lacking  in  United 
States,  loo-ioi 
Brewer,  Justice,  255 
Bricklaying:  efficiency  under  scien- 
tific management,  193 
Brickmaking,  145-146 
Bright,  John,  124-125,  129 
British  Admiralty,  142-143 
British  Association  for  the  Ad- 
vancement OF  Science:  legis- 
lation and  regularity  of  work, 
184;    opinion  on  regulation  of 
hours,  128 
British  Factory  Inspectors:  first 
appointment,    129;     on    over- 
time,    88-89;      providing     in- 
formation, 130,  229 
British     Government     and     the 

Eight-hour  Day,  141-142 
British  Interdepartmental  Com- 
mittee ON   Physical  Degen- 
eration, 113 

British  War  Office,  141-142 


Broggi,  U.:    fecundity  of  working 

women,  96 
Burckhardt,  A.  E.:    morbidity  of 

women,  40-41 
Bureau  of  Arbitration.    See  New 

York  State  Department  of  Labor 


Caisson  Work,  120 
California:     canneries,    63,    186; 
unjustified  overtime  in  canner- 
ies, 187 
Canneries:    California,  63;    Cali- 
fornia, lack  of  records,  186;  Cal- 
ifornia overtime,  187;   capping, 
61-63;     constrained    attitudes, 
61-62;  Delaware  law,  187;  dis- 
organization of  the  labor  force, 
185-186;    feeding  com  cutters, 
62;     general    description,    60; 
machinery,  60;    Maryland,  63, 
185;    New   York  state,  60-62; 
overtime,   185;    season,  62-63; 
sorting,    60-61;     special    over- 
time    privileges,     269;      state 
legislation,  223 
Carbon  Dioxide,  22,  23-24,  25,  265 
Carl  Zeiss  Foundation,  156, 157 
Carozzi,  L.:  night  workers  in  Italy, 

266 
Carrier  Pigeons:    exhaustion  in, 

31 
Catabolism,  12,  21 
Cell:  distinctive  property,  n 
Change:    of  habits  in  purchasing, 

180-182;    in   fashions,  189;    of 

work,  value,  107 
Chemical  Workers,  i44-iS5 

Chemistry:  of  fatigue,  12,  13;  of 
muscular  contraction,  21-25 

Child  Labor,  232;  inspection  of 
health,  235;  validity  of  New 
York  law,  250 

Children's  Employment  Commis- 
sion, 127 

Christmas  Trade:  auditing,  87; 
Consumers'  League  work,  183; 
exemptions  in  state  laws,  223; 
hours  unlimited  in  New  York 
4;   overtime.  84,  87 


INDEX 


Civil    Service    Examination    for 

inspectors,  237 
Civil  War  Veterans  as  inspectors, 

237 
Class  Legislation,  257-258 
Closing  Hour:  fixed,  211,  214,  216, 

217,  224-225,  226,  261,  277 
Cloth   Folding:    efficiency   under 

scientific  management,  193 
Coal    Mining:     machinery,    171- 

172;    results  of  shorter  hours, 

169-172 
Coal  Shoveling:    efficiency  under 

scientific  management,  142 
COBDEN,  124,  128 

Colorado    Manufacturers'    As- 
sociation, 123 
Committee  of  One  Hundred  on 

National  Health,  115 
Commons,  J.  R.:    Organized  labor 

and  efficiency,  208-210 
Complexity     of     Industry.    See 

Speed  in  manufaclure 
Compositors:     Pieraccini's     study, 

134-136 
Concentration  of  Work,  59 
Consciousness  of  Fatigue,  38 
Conservation  of  Human  Energies, 

286 
Constitution:  United  States,  243- 

244 
Constitutionality  of  Laws,  242 

Consumers:    policy  of  persuasion, 

182-184 
Consumers'  League,  i8i,  183,  184; 

court  decisions,  250 
Contract:   freedom  of,  243-244 
Contraction:  muscular,  chemistry 

of,  21-25;   study  of,  14-20 

Cooley's  Constitutional  Limita- 
tions, 258 

Cotton  Goods  Manufacture:  ef- 
ficiency under  scientific  man- 
agement, 193 

Cotton  Mills:  night  work  of 
women  and  children  in  North 
and  South  Carolina,  273-276; 
scientific  management  and 
women  workers,  205;   study  of 


Cotton  Mills  {Conlitiued) 

children  in,  232;   weaving  room 
study, 201, 204 

Court  Decisions:  as  to  constitu- 
tionality of  state  labor  laws, 
etc.,  231-232;  Consumers' 
League  and,  250;  Holden  vs. 
Hardy,  245-246;  judicial  cog- 
nizance of  general  knowledge, 
252,  253;  Lochner  case,  246- 
247;  Oregon  case,  251-252; 
Ritchie  case,  first,  243-244; 
Ritchie  case,  second,  253;  sex 
distinctions,  253-256;  Wil- 
liams case,  247-251 

Courts:  labor  laws  and,  242-258 

Cranberries:  Sunday  picking,  188, 
189 

Curare:  use  in  study  of  nervous 
fatigue,  30 

Curve  of  Effort,  t,;^ 

Curve  of  Fatigue,  20,  33,  35,  38, 
134-136 

Customers:  adaptation  to  change, 
180-182 

Dancing:  rhythmic  element,  80 
Degeneration.     See    Race    degen- 
eration 
Delaware:  canning  law,  187 
Denis,  H.:  right  to  rest,  39 
Department   Stores:    shifting   of 
employes,    206;     states    allow- 
ing   exemptions    at    Christmas 
time,  223;   states  limiting  hours 
for  women,  5 
Devine,    Edward  T.:    minor    ail- 
ments, importance,  116-117 
Dextrose,  21,  22 
Digestion,  283-284 
Discrimination  in  the  laws,  257 
Disease:      general     predisposition 
among  working  people,  111-112 
Diseases:       industrial,      112-115; 
Milan  clinic  for  industrial,  113; 
minor  ailments,   115-117;     oc- 
cupational, 233-234;  trade,  112 
115;    white  lead  industry,  238 
Domestic    Duties:     women's,    55 
267 


331 


INDEX 


Doubling  up,  213,  214 

Draper    Looms:     number    tended, 

56-58 
Dressmaking:  overtime,  176-177 
Drive,  200,  206,  209 


Early  Closing  Bill,  250 

Economic  Ruin:  fear  of,  121-122, 
124 

Efficiency,  156;  Germany,  165-166; 
in  administration  of  labor  laws, 
228;  maximum  of  individuals, 
165.  See  also  Fatigue;  Output; 
Scientific  management;  Shorter 
hours 

Efficiency  Engineers,  196-208 

Effort:   under  fatigue,  33-34 

Eight-hour  Day:  141,  143;  Aus- 
tralia, 167-168;  bituminous 
coal  mining  in  United  States, 
170-172;  Engis  chemical  works, 
144-154;  Germany,  164;  women, 
169.     See  also  Shorter  hours 

Eight-hour  Law:  first  Ritchie  case, 
Illinois,  243-244;  Montana, 
256;    Pennsylvania,  256 

Elastic  Law:  Great  Britain,  218- 
223;  United  States,  223-227 

Emergencies:    overtime  allowance 

for,  184-190 
Emerson,  H.:   belting,  207-208 

Employment:  regularity  of,  175- 
191 

Enforcement  OF  Labor  Laws:  an- 
nual report  of  labor  depart- 
ments, 228-229;  desiderata, 
211;  elastic  law,  218-227; 
Great  Britain,  216-218;  in- 
spectors' difficulties,  226;  in- 
spectors' opinions  on,  231; 
Massachusetts  textile  law,  212- 
216;   non-textile  acts,  218 

Engis  Chemical  Works:  reorgani- 
zation and  effect  of  reduced 
hours,  144-155 

England:  early  factory  legisla- 
tion, 6;  night  work  for  women, 
260;  ten  hours  movement,  123- 
131.     See  also  Great  Britain 


Epidemics:  contribution  of  over- 
fatigue, III 

Equalizing  Seasons  in  Tr.ade 
178-180 

Ergograph, 18-20,  33-34 

EUKLES,   14 

Evening  Work.     See  Overtime 
Exhaustion,  9,  23,  iii,  114,  115, 
281,  283-284;   birds,  31 

Eyeletting  Shoes,  66 

Eyes:  strain  on,  54,  61,  63,  109 

Factory  Inspectors:  annual  re- 
ports, 228-232;  character  and 
fitness,  236-238;  England's 
first,  129;  inspection  of  health, 
233;  New  York  state,  227; 
physicians  as,  233;  Prussian 
training,  238;  past  services, 
129-130 

Factory  Legislation  as  to  hours  of 
work.     See  Legislation 

Fall  River,  Massachusetts:  in- 
fant mortahty,  91,  92 

Fashion:  changes  in,  189;  changes 
work  hardship  to  piece-workers, 
83-84 

Fatigue:  accumulation  of  waste 
products,  11-14;  accumulation 
in  overtime,  87;  anti-toxin  of, 
26,  27;  as  a  danger  of  occupa- 
tion, 118;  consumption  of 
energy-yielding  substance,  20- 
25;  curve  of,  20;  effect  on  di- 
gestion, 283-284;  fundamental 
factors,  20,  21;  individuality 
in,  19;  in  industry,  need  of  new 
study,  II 7-1 20;  International 
Congress  of  Hygiene,  113;  Ital- 
ian study  of,  113-115;  meas- 
urement of  muscular  fatigue, 
14-20;  nature  of  products,  25- 
27;  nervous  nature,  27-33; 
new  study  of,  in  industry,  112- 
115;  normal  and  abnormal,  31; 
passive,  164;  physiology  of, 
11-38;  poison  of,  13,  28,  36, 
281;  predisposition  to  disease 
in  general,  111-112;  present 
day  relation  to  output,  133; 
rhythm  of  machinery  an  ele- 
ment, 79-82;    specific  toxin  of. 


332 


INDEX 


Fatigue  (Continued) 

26,    27.     See   also   Nervous  fa- 
tigue; Output 

FiSH-cxiRiNG  in  Great  Britain,  220- 
221 

Fisher,  Irving:  overfatigue,  115 

FiTCii,  John  A.:  court  decisions  on 
hours  of  labor,  255;  example  of 
eight-hour  day,  168 

Flax  Scutch  Mills,  222 

Florence,  Italy:  compositors,  134- 
136;  Dr.  GiglioH,  114;  Pro- 
fessor Pieraccini,  133 

Folksongs:   rhythm,  80 

Foster,  Sir  Michael:  nature  of 
cellular  life,  12;  poisons  of  fa- 
tigue, 13 

Fourteenth  Amendment  to  the 
Constitution  of  the  United 
States,  243-244 

Freedom:  labor's,  to  contract,  243- 
244;   restraint  of,  242-243 

French  Factory  Inspectors:  on 
overwork,  and  military  service, 
99 

Freund,  Ernst:  police  power,  243 

Frog:  fatigue  in  muscle  contrac- 
tion, 14-18,  35 

Fromont,  L.  G.:  reorganization  of 
Engis  works,  144-155 

Fruit-preserving  Establishments 
in  Great  Britain,  220,  221 

Gantt,H.  G.:  efficiency  under  scien- 
tific management,  200,  201,  205 

General  Knowledge:  judicial 
cognizance  of,  252,  253 

German  Emperor,  261 

German  Industrial  Code,  263-264 

German  Workingmen:  fitness  for 
military  service,  99 

Germany:   economic  efficiency,  165 

GrisoN,  M.,  126 

GiGLiOLi,  G.  Y.:  pathology  of  la- 
bor, 114 

Glass  Workers:  moral  degenera- 
tion, 275 

Glycogen:  how  supplied  and  con- 
sumed, 21-23 


GR(VHAm,  J.,  128 

Great  Britain:  elastic  laws,  218- 
223;  fish-curing,  220-221;  flax 
scutch  mills,  222;  fruit-pre- 
serving, 220,  221;  laundry 
legislation,  221-222;  rigid  law 
development,   216-218 

Grigg,  W.  C:  injury  of  long  hours, 

95-96 
Gun  Carriages,  202 
GiJTERGUTZ  Sanitarium,  102 


Habits:  possibility  of  changing, 
180-182 

Half-holiday,  225 

Hansard's  Parliamentary  De- 
bates, 124,  125 

Hardy.    See  Holden  v.  Hardy 

Harrison,  A.     See  Hutchins,  B.  L. 

Health:  observation  of,  in  indus- 
trial establishments,  233-236; 
minors,  234 

Heart  Disease:  Berlin  working 
people,  105 

Helmholz,  H.  von:  myograph  and 
frog  experiments,  17 

Henderson,  C.  R.:  European  in- 
dustrial insurance,  loi 

Hipps'  Chronometer,  69 

History  of  Factory  Legislation: 
the  standard,  123 

Holden  v.  Hardy,  245-246 

Holland:  night  work  for  women  in 

laundries,  268 
Hospitals:   as  sources  for  study  of 

industrial      fatigue,      118-119; 

value  of  cases  and  records,  120 
Hours  of  the  Day  when  accidents 

occur.     See  Accidents 

Hours  of  Labor:  laws  regulating, 
291-304 

Human  Element  in  Work,  127, 137 
140,  141 

Hltie,  124, 127 

Hutchins,  B.  L.:  legislators'  igno- 
rance of  industrial  experience, 
123 


333 


INDEX 


Ilunois:  bituminous  coal-mining, 
1 71-172;  Manufacturers'  As- 
sociation, i22-i23;ten-hourlaw, 
180,  253 
State  Department  of  Factory  In- 
spection: accidents  by  hour  of 
day, 75 
Supreme  Court:  eight-hour  law 
for  women,  243-244;  second 
Ritchie  case,  253;  ten-hour  law 
decision,  1910,  and  its  value,  4 

Imbert,  Professor:  accidents,  74 

Immigration,  286 

Incidence  of  Accidents.  See  Ac- 
cidents 

Indiana:   accident  statistics,  76,  77 

Individuality:    in  fatigue,  20,  137 

Industrial  Accidents.  See  Acci- 
dents 

Industrial  Commission,  Wiscon- 
sin, 239-240 

Industrialism:  English  beginnings, 
124,  125 

Industrial  Ruin:  cry  of,  1 21-12 2, 
124 

Infant  Mortality:  cotton  mill 
towns,  91;  factors,  91;  Great 
Britain,  textile  and  non-textile 
towns,  92-94;  United  States, 
91-92 

Inspectors.     See  Factory  inspectors 

Insurance  Societies.  See  Sick- 
ness insurance  societies 

International  Association  for 
Labor  Legislation,  261 

International  Commission  on 
Trade  Diseases,  114 

International  Conference  on 
Labor,  261 

International  Congress  of  Hy- 
giene, 113,  260 

Interstate  Commerce  Commis- 
sion, 192,  208 

Iron  and  Steel  Industry:  long 
hours  of  workers  in  the  United 
States,  4 

Irregularity  of  Employment:  in- 
jurious effect,  no,  175,  176,  191 

Italian  Journal  of  Social  Medi- 
cine, 114 


Italians:  prominent  place  in  study 
of  fatigue,  11 3-1 15 

James,  Wm.:  effect  of  noise  on  re- 
action time,  69-70;  second 
wind,  282 

January  "White  Sale,"  178 

Jay,  Raoul,  259 

Jena,  Germany:  Zeiss  Optical 
Works,  155-167 

Jewelry  Case  and  box  making,  180 

Kearsley',  England:  death  rate,  94 
Kennedy,  J.  L.,  127 
Kentucky:  commission  on  working 
women,  50 

Labor  Bureaus:  annual  report, 
value,  228-232;  lateness  of  re- 
ports, 229-230 

Labor  Laws.  See  Enforcement  of 
labor  laws;   Legislation 

Labor  Legislation.  See  Legisla- 
tion 

Labor:  organized,  attitude  toward 
scientific  management,  208-210 

Lancashire,  England:  cotton  spin- 
ners' position,  218;  death  rate, 
94;  factory  conditions  early  in 
the  nineteenth  century,  6;  long 
hours  and  output,  127 

Last  Hours  of  Work,  126 

Laundries:  British  legislation,  221- 
222;  intemperance,  280;  night 
work  in  Holland,  268;  Oregon 
case,  251-252;  overtime  and 
irregularity,  181;  overtime  in 
New  York  City,  271-272 

Laundr\'men's  Associations,  122, 
123 

Lawrence,  Massachusetts:  Atlan- 
tic mills,  reduced  hours,  131- 
132;   infant  mortality,  92 

Laws,  Labor:  constitutionality, 
242;  courts  and,  242-258;  dis- 
crimination, 257-258;  first 
Ritchie  case,  243-244;  freedom 
of  contract  theory,  243-244; 
Holden  v.  Hardy,  245-246; 
Lochner  case,  246-247;  new  de- 


334 


INDEX 


Laws,  Labor  {Continued) 

fense  by  Brandcis,  L.  D.,  251- 
252;  Oregon  case,  251-252;  po- 
lice power,  242-243;  regulating 
hours  of  women's  labor,  291- 
304;  second  Ritchie  case,  253; 
sex  distinctions,  253-256;  va- 
lidity, 256-258;  Williams  case, 
247-251.  See  also  Enforcement 
of  labor  laws;  Legislation ;  Stat- 
utes 
League.  See  Consumers^  League 
Lee,  Frederic  S.:   fatigue,  17,  19, 

25,  32,  281 
Legislation:  aim,  6;  a  new  basis; 
3,  9;  benefits,  128,  130,  132- 
133;  class,  257-258;  closing 
hour,  211,  214,  216,  217,  224- 
225,  226,  270,  277;  converts  in 
England,  128-129;  England, 
early,  6;  inspector's  record  of 
effects,  130;  Massachusetts,  131- 
132,  212-216;  need,  182,  184; 
non-textile,  218;  organizations 
and  associations  opposing,  122- 
123;  part  played  by  factory  in- 
spectors, 129;  physicians'  testi- 
mony in  England,  6;  rigid  law, 
development  in  Massachusetts, 
212-216,  in  Great  Britain,  216- 
218;  similarity  of  history,  121- 
123;  source  of  opposition  to, 
5-6,  121-122,  124;  United 
States,  inclusive  of  all  manu- 
facture, 224;  women's  rights 
party's  position,  254;  Wright, 
C.  D.,  131.  See  also  Enforce- 
ment of  Labor  Laws;  Laws 
Legislatures:  freedom  of,  257-258 
Leipzig:  sickness  insurance  society, 

1X2 

Leisure:  effect  on  working  people, 
278-280 

Liberty.     See  Freedom 

Liege.     See  Engis  Chemical  Works 

Lighting  of  Workrooms,  239 

Limbering-up,  36,  78,  136 

Limitation  of  Hours:  physiolog- 
ical necessity,  9 

Liver:  function,  22,  23 

Loading  Cars:  efficiency  under  sci- 
entific management,  193, 195-196 


Lochner  Case,  246-247 

Long  Hours:  Griggs,  W.  C,  95-96; 
in  continuous  industries  for 
men,  256;  iron  and  steel  work- 
ers, 4;  physicians'  and  medical 
schools'  neglect  of,  117;  profits 
and, 130 

Looms:  number  tended,  56-57 

Lowenfeld,  103 

Lubbock,  Sir  John,  250 

LiiBENAU,  Dr.,  104-105,  284 

Machinery:  coal  mining,  171-172; 
fatiguing  effect,  68-69;  inven- 
tions and  improvements,  172- 
173;  manufacture,  efficiency  un- 
der scientific  management,  193; 
shoe  making,  64 

Machine;  Shop  Work:  efficiency 
under  scientific  management , 
193 

Maggiora,  a.  :  amount  of  rest  after 
fatigue,  33-34.   88 

Mahaim,  E.:  results  of  eight-hour 
day  in  Belgium,  146 

Management.  See  Scientific  man- 
agement 

Manchester,  England:  Salford  ex- 
periment, 138-143 

Manchester  School,  124-125 

Martineau,  H.,  97 

Maryland:  canneries,  63,  186 

Massachusetts:     first    official    re- 
turns on  occupational  diseases, 
233;   history  of  rigid  law,  212- 
216;     legislation    and    output, 
131-132;      state    inspector    of 
health,  233 
Bureau   of    Statistics   of   Labor; 
shorter  hours  and  output,  131 
General  Hospital,  120 
Supreme       Court:        cranberry- 
picking,  188 

Mather  and  Platt:  experiment  in 
shortening  hours,  138-143 

Medical  Inspection.  See  Physi- 
cians 

Metabolism,  12 

Michigan  ten-hour  law  for  women , 
257-258 


335 


INDEX 


Mid  VALE  Steel  Works,  196 
Milan:     clinic    for    industrial    dis- 
eases, 113 
Military  Recruiting:    testimony 

as  to  race  degeneration,  97-98 
Mines  and  Smelters,  245 
Mining:  eight-hour  laws,  254;  Mon- 
tana  law,    256;     Pennsylvania 
law,  256 
Minor  Ailments:  importance,  116- 

117 
Minors:     employment    in    Massa- 
chusetts, 234;    inspecting,  235; 
manufactures  injurious  to  the 
health  of,  234 
Monotony:    canneries,  59-64;     ef- 
fects, 106-107;  industrial  tend- 
ency, 285-286;    light  and  easy 
work,       68;        manufacturing 
hinges,  64;   means  of  relief,  67; 
packing    small    wares,    66-67; 
paper  boxes,  63-64;   physiolog- 
ical basis,  67-68;  shoe  making, 
64-67 
Morality:    danger  of  night  work, 

267,  275-276 
Morbidity    of    Women:     greater 
than  men's,   39-42;    statistics, 
40-42 
Mosso,  A.:  effect  of  noise  on  reac- 
tion  time,  69;    ergograph,_i8; 
exhaustion  of  birds,  31;  fatigue 
studies  in  man,  16,  18-20;  fa- 
tigued    dog     experiment,     15; 
ponometer,     33;      recuperative 
effect  of  rest,   34;  SiciUan  sul- 
phur workers,  98 
Motor  End-plate,  31 
Muscular  Contraction:     chemis- 
try of,  21-25 
Muscular  Fatigue:  nature,  meas- 
urement, 14-21 
Myograph,  17 


National  Conservation  Commis- 
sion, 115 
Needle  Trades.     See  Sewing 
Nerve  Fibers:  two  groups,  29;  un 
fatiguable,  29,  30  . 


Nervous  Diseases:  contributing 
causes,  106-107;  German  sani- 
taria, statistics,  103-106;  in- 
crease, 103-110;  Liibenau,  Dr., 
104-105;  Roth,  E.,  105,  106- 
107;  St.  Louis  garment  work- 
ers, no;  telephone  strain,  108- 
iio;   Treves,  Z.,  107-108,  in 

Nervous  Energy:  effect  of  train- 
ing on,  37;  form  of  electric  ac- 
tivity, 27 
Nervous  Fatigue:  consciousness 
of,  38;  destructiveness,  27,  32; 
double  origin,  28;  location,  29- 
33;  Maggiora,  A.,  28;  Mosso, 
A.,  28;  nature  of  nerve  im- 
pulse, 27;  over-stimulation,  38; 
relation  to  muscular  fatigue, 
27,  28;  unsettled  problems,  32 
Nervous  System:   description,  28- 

29 
Neurasthenia.    See   Nervous   dis- 
eases; Nervous  fatigue 
Newman,  G.:  infant  death  rate  and 
women    in    industry    in    Great 
Britain,  92-94 
New  York  City:  bindery  overtime, 
85,   271;    Christmas  rush  and 
Consumers'  League,  183;   over- 
time in  laundries,  271-272;    re- 
tail Dry  Goods  Merchants'  As- 
sociation,   123;     working   girls 
54-56 
New  York  Mercantile  Inspector, 

226 
New  York  State:  bakers'  ten-hour 
law,  246-247;  factory  inspect- 
ors graded,  237;  factory  law, 
226-227;  medical  inspector  of 
factories,  233 
Court  of  Appeals,  247,  248,  250, 

251,  254,  259,  269 
Department  of  Labor,  255;  laun- 
dries, 271-272 
Night  Work  for  Women:  Berne 
convention,  259-265;  binderies 
in  New  York  City,  271;  Caro- 
lina cotton  mills,  273-276; 
Carozzi,  L.,  266;  Delaware, 
270-271;  Dutch  factory  in- 
spectors' account,  268;  effi- 
ciency reduced,  268,  276;  Eng- 
land, 260;   exceptions  provided 

336 


INDEX 


Night  Work  for  Women:  (Con- 
tiimed) 
at  Berne,  262;  extent,  271;  first 
court  decision,  248;  France, 
266;  Georgia  mill,  276;  Ger- 
many, 266;  glass  making,  275; 
Holland,  268;  inferiority  of 
output,  267-268,  276;  injuri- 
ous effects,  86,  265-269;  Inter- 
national Association  for  Labor 
Legislation,  261;  International 
Conference  on  Labor,  261;  In- 
ternational Congress  of  Hygiene 
etc.,  260;  Italy,  266;  laundries 
in  New  York  City,  271-272; 
laws  in  United  States,  248, 
259.  304;  moral  injury,  86,  267, 
275-276;  prohibition  a  benefit, 
259-269;  public  indifJerence, 
269-271;  Schuler,  F.,  260; 
silk  weaving,  276;  Switzerland, 
260;  telephone  service,  272- 
273;  United  States,  269-277; 
Wisconsin  legislation,  269-270 

Noise:  canning,  62;  effect  on  re- 
action time,  69;  getting  used 
to,  71;  machines,  effect  of,  68- 
69;  Mosso,  A.,  69;  sewing  ma- 
chines, 54 

Non-textile  Legislation,  218 

Normal  Day,  183,  217,  222 

North  Carolina:  cotton  mills, 
night  work,  273-276 

NoRTHRUP  Looms,  57 

Observation  of  Health  in  indus- 
trial establishments,  233-236 

Occupational  Diseases.  See  Dis- 
eases, industnal 

Oliver,  Sir  T.:  beer  in  laundries, 
280;  industrial  poisoning,  Scot- 
land, 143 

Optimum,  198,  206,  282 

Orders:  customers'  adaptation  in 
giving,  180-182;  refusing,  190 

Oregon  Ten-hour  Law,  123,  231, 
251-252;  Supreme  Court  deci- 
sion, 320 

Organized  Labor.     See  Labor 


Output:  Ashley,  Lord,  128;  Brit- 
ish Association  for  the  Advance- 
ment of  Science,  128;  British 
government,  141-143;  cash  re- 
lation to  fatigue,  137-138,  143; 
coal  mining  in  United  States, 
170-172;  effect  of  regulation  of 
hours  on  wages,  173-174;  Eng- 
land, 123-131;  Engis  Chemical 
Works,  Belgium,  144-155;  ex- 
amples of  extraordinary  in- 
crease, 193;  increase  with 
shorter  hours,  139,  149,  159; 
inferiority  of  night  work,  267- 
268,  276;  laboratory  study, 
value,  121;  Massachusetts 
Bureau  of  Statistics  of  Labor, 
131;  Pieraccini,  G.,  133-137; 
profit  by  regulation,  130;  rela- 
tion between  long  hours  and 
spoiled  work,  128;  relation  to 
fatigue,  123-133;  Salford  Iron 
Works,  138-143;  United  States' 
experience  in  regulation  of 
hours,  131-133;  Zeiss  Optical 
Works,  155-167 

Overfatigue,  9;  Fisher,  I.,  115; 
physicians'  neglect  to  study, 
117;  public  and  social  menace, 
hi;  society's  failure  to  appre- 
ciate, 117 

Overproduction,  190 

Overstimulation:  deceptive  na- 
ture of,  38 

Overtime:  ailments  after,  88;  al- 
lowances and  exemptions,  213- 
214,  219,  302,  303;  basis  for, 
177-178;  British  Association  for 
the  Advancement  of  Science, 
184;  British  factory  inspectors, 
88-89;  British  tobacco  factories, 
88;  canneries,  185-186;  Chi- 
cago, 85-86;  cranberry-picking, 
188-199;  deterioration  of  prod- 
uct, 163;  economic  evils,  176- 
177;  emergencies,  184-190;  es- 
sential injury  to  health,  86-87 
evil  effect  of  allowing,  185,  191 
extent,  271;  extreme  forms,  84 
Federal  investigation,  85;  fre- 
quency, 85;  gradual  restriction 
in  Great  Britain,  219-223;  key 
to  regulation  of  hours,  211; 
laundries,  180-182;    legal  clos- 


337 


INDEX 


Overtime  (Continued) 

ing  hour,  211;  legal  prohibi- 
tion, 184-191;  likenesses  to  the 
long  day,  176;  minors  in  Great 
Britain,  223;  necessity  for,  188- 
189,  191;  New  York  City,  85; 
night  dangers,  86;  paper-box 
making,  85-86;  physiological 
evils,  176;  power  of  persuasion 
182-184;  regularity  and,  175- 
191;  Roth,  E.,  89;  telephone 
service  in,  49-51;  variation  in 
different  establishments,  190 

Overtraining,  37 

Overwork:  new  medical  study  of, 
112-1x5;  school  children,  117; 
to  check,  6 

Owen,  Robert:  argument  against 
long  hours,  128 

Oxygen:  for  combustion,  21;  how 
supplied  for  muscular  contrac- 
tion,   23-25 


Pace-makers,  83 

Paper-box  Making,  180;    Chicago 

hours,  85-86 
Parliamentary  Debates,  124,  125 
Passive  Fatigue,  164 
Pathology  of  Work,  113-115,  120 
Peckham,  Justice,  247 
Pennsylvania:   labor  ofBcial,  231- 

232 
Perishable  Goods,  187,  220-223 

Persuasion  by  Consumers,  182- 
184 

Pettenkofer,  24 

Physicians:  as  health  inspectors  in 
industrial  establishments,  233; 
neglect  of  industrial  overstrain, 
117;  nervous  diseases,  testi- 
mony as  to  increase,  103-110; 
testimony,  6,  7,  48 

Piece-work:  abuses,  82-83;  3,s  af- 
fected by  shorter  hours,  140; 
danger,  84;  excessive  strain, 
107;  fashion  changes,  83-84; 
hardships,  83;  merit,  82;  pace- 
makers, 83;  St.  Louis  garment 
workers,  no;  sewing  trades, 
82;    shoe  industry,  82;    speed- 


Piece-work  {Continued) 

ing  up,  82;  statistics  before  and 

after    reduced    hours    in    Zeiss 

works,  157-162 
PiERACCiNi,  G. :  output  study  and  its 

value,  133-135 
Pig  Iron  Handling,  195-199 

Poison  of  Fatigue.  See  Fatigue, 
Toxin 

Police  Power  of  the  State,  242- 

243 
Ponometer,  2,3, 
PoNOMETRic  Curve,  33 
Postponement  of  Rest,  88 

Preston,    England:     infant    death 

rate,  94 
Prevention  of  Disease,  102-103, 

115,  118-119,  239 

Prinzing,  F.,  42 

Proditcts  of  Fatigue:  nature,  25- 
27 

Prohibition:  of  night  work  for 
women,  259-269;  of  overtime, 
184-191 

Prussian:  factory  inspectors'  train- 
ing, 238 

Purchasers:  adaptation  to  change, 
180-182 


Quail:  exhaustion  after  long  flight, 
31 


Race  Degeneration,  113;  Ascher, 
Dr.,  99;  England,  1830-1840, 
97;  factory  population,  97; 
France,  99;  German  working- 
men,  99;  military  statistics, 
97-98;  Mosso,  A.,  98;  Schuler, 
F.,  98;  sub-normal  children,  97; 
Switzerland,  98-99 

Ramazzini,  B.,  112 

Ramazzini,  II,  114 

Ranke,  J.:  experiment  with  fa- 
tigued frog  muscle,  14-15 

Reaction  Time:  individual  differ- 
ences, 69 


338 


INDEX 


Regularity  of  Employment,  175- 
191;  best  incentive,  191;  pro- 
moted by  law,  182,  184;  two 
examples,  179-180 

Regulation:  basis  of  opposition  to, 
1 21-122,  124;  effect  on  wages, 
1 73-1 74 ;  English  conversions  to 
the  principle,  128-129;  United 
States  experience,  131-133 

Rest:  balancing  exertion,  12,  34, 
38,  197;  daily  need,  256;  es- 
sential value,  88;    weekly,  256 

Resting  time:  telephone  service,  no 
Retail   Dry   Goods   Merchants' 

Association  of  New  York  City, 

123 

Rhythm:  an  element  in  fatigue,  79- 
82;  dance  and  song,  80;  human, 
80;  machinery,  81-82;  physi- 
ology of,  81 ;  value,  80-91 

Rigid  Law:  effect,  217;  Great  Brit- 
ain, 216-2x8;  Massachusetts, 
212-216 

Ritchie  Case:  first,  244-245;  sec- 
ond, 253 

Roebuck,  Mr.,  128-129 

Roth,  E.:  nervous  diseases  among 
working  people,  105,  106-107; 
overtime,  89 

Royal  Canadian  Commission,  7, 
48-49 

Rubber  Goods  Manufacture,  234 

Sadler's  Committee,  6 

Safety:  problems,  239 

St.  Loins  Jewish  Dispensary: 
neurasthenia  among  garment 
workers,  no 

Salford   Iron   Works:    economic 

results  of  shorter  hours,   138- 

143 
Sanitaria  for  Working  People  in 

Germany,  102 
Schedules,  Comparative:  showing 

women's  hours  of  labor,  291-304 

School  Children:  overwork  and 
fatigue,  117 

Schuler,  p.:  morbidity  of  women, 
40-41;    night  work  law,  260 


Schwab,  C.  M.,  200 

Schwab,  Dr.  S.  I.,  no 

Scientific  Management:  Abb6,  E., 
206;  benefits,  201-203;  Beth- 
lehem Steel  Works,  195-200; 
charges  against,  200;  collective 
bargaining,  208-210;  dangers, 
200,  203-208;  definition,  192; 
difference  from  ordinary,  194; 
effect  on  workers,  204-208;  Em- 
erson, H.,  207-208;  examples 
of  increased  efficiency,  193; 
Gantt,  H.  G.,  200,  201,  205; 
loading  a  freight  car,  195-196; 
need  of  study,  206;  organized 
labor,  208-210;  physical  sur- 
roundings of  workers,  203; 
speed,  199-200;  stimuli,  194, 
198-199;  Taylor,  F.  W.,  195; 
tiring  effects  of  heavy  labor, 
196;  training  a  worker,  197; 
Watertown  (Mass.)  Arsenal, 
201-202;  weaving,  201;  wo- 
men workers,  205;  workers,  ef- 
fect on,  204-208;  working 
capacity,  204;  Wyatt,  E.,  205 

Seasonal  Trades:  canning,  62; 
shoes,  179-180 

Seasons:  efforts  to  equalize,  178- 
180 

Second  Wind,  282 

Senior,  N.  W.:  theory  of  last  hours 
of  work,  126,  127 

Sewing  Industries:    evils,  54-55; 

irregularity,  54-55;  legal  hours, 

New  York,  54;   long  hours,  55; 

pay,  54-55;    speed  and  strain, 

53-56 
Sewing     Machines:        increasing 

speed  and  strain,  lo-ii,  54 

Sex  Distinctions,  253-256 

Sex  Function  of  Women,  40 

Shaftesbury,  Lord.  See  Ashley 
Lord 

Shoe  Manufacturing:  equalizing 
seasons,  179-180;  eyeletting, 
66;  machinery,  64;  monotony, 
64;  piece-work,  82;  subdivision 
of  labor,  64;  United  States  In- 
dustrial Commission,  64;  up- 
per trimming  machine,  65 


339 


INDEX 


Shorter  Hours:  Australia,  167- 
168;  automatic  adaptation,  163, 
165;  Bclf^ium,  144-154;  Denis, 
H.,  39;  diagram  of  health  im- 
provement, 151-155;  economic 
benefits,  122;  effect  on  piece- 
work, 140;  Engis  Chemical 
Works,  144-155;  England,  138- 
143;  Germany,  155-167;  in- 
crease of  output,  139,  151,  158- 
159;  market  value,  143;  men's, 
168-169;  purpose,  287;  Salford 
experiment,  138-143;  scientific 
basis,  38-39;  slow  movement 
toward,  168;  temperance,  279- 
280;  United  States,  167-174; 
United  States  coal  mining,  170- 
172;  United  States  Industrial 
Commission,  169;  United  States 
lack  of  data,  167;  uses  of  lei- 
sure, 279;  various  industries, 
167,  169;   women's,  168-169 

Sicilian  Sulphur  Workers,  98 

Sickness  Insurance  Societies:  an 
American  study  of,  106;  com- 
monest diseases,  103;  duration 
of  illness,  41-42;  German  sys- 
tem and  its  opportunities  for 
study  of  workingmen,  101-102; 
Leipzig,  112;  morbidity  statis- 
tics, 41-42;  preventive  treat- 
ment, 102;  trade  diseases,  112 

Sleep:  loss  of,  265-267 

South  Carolina:  cotton  mills, 
night  work,  273-276 

Speed  IN  Manufacture:  American, 
286,  287;  gain  of,  199-200;  how 
gained,  59;  increase,  lo-ii; 
sewing,  53-56;  telephone  service, 
43-53;    textile  industry,  56-58 

Speeding-up,     193,     199;      sewing 

trades,  etc.,  82 
Spoiled  Work,  176;  in  twelve-hour 

day  and  afterward,  127-128 
Standing:   injury  to  women,  95 

State's     Need     of     Preserving 

Health,  286-287 
Statutes    Regulating    Women's 

Hours    of    Labor:     extracts 

from,  305-319 
Steel    Industry.     See    Iron    and 

steel  industry 


Stitching  Trades.     See  Sewing 
Stop-watch,  138,  192,  196,  200,  208 
Strain,  34;    new  industrial,  43-89 
scientific  management,  204-208 
three    ways    of    reacting,    91 
U.S.  lack  of  data,  100-01 

Subdivision  of  Labor:  shoemak- 
ing,  64,  65,  66 

SuLPHLTi  Workers,  98 

Sulphuric  Acid,  144 

Sunday:  cranberry  picking,  188- 
189;    telephone  service,  51 

Sunday  Laws:  courts  and,  256 

Sunshine:  lack  of,  265-266 

Supreme  Court:  decision  in  Mul- 

ler  v.  Oregon,  320 
Surmenage,  lis,  14s 

Switzerland: 

Factory    workers:     morbidity    of 
women,  40;    unfitness  for  mili- 
tary service,  98-99 
Federal  Council,  262,  263 
Mutual  insurance  societies:    mor- 
bidity, 41-42 

Taylor,  F.  W.:  scientific  manage- 
ment, 195-200 

Telegraphers:  interstate  railroad, 
254,  256 

Telephone  SER\^CE:  American 
Telephone  and  Telegraph  Com- 
pany, 49;  Bell  Company  of 
Canada,  48-49;  breaking  point, 
52;  cities  of  excess  calls,  table, 
53;  e.xcess  loading,  52;  ex- 
change, 45-47;  hardships,  49- 
52;  hours,  Toronto,  48-49; 
hours.  United  States,  49-51; 
Kcntuck}',  50;  length  of  ser- 
vice, 273;  nervous  exhaustion, 
108-110;  New  York,  49,  51; 
night  work,  272-273;  operat- 
ing, 45-48;  overtime,  49-51; 
physical  effects,  48;  resting 
periods,  51-52;  Sunday  work, 
51;  switchboard,  45-46;  To- 
ronto, Canada,  48-49;  United 
States,  49-51;  United  States 
Bureau  of  Labor,  49 


340 


INDEX 


Temperance:  effect  of  leisure,  279- 
280;  growth  with  shorter  hours 
of  work,  154 

Ten-hours  Movement  in  England, 
1 23-131;  effect  in  Europe,  166; 
English  opposition,  124,  125 

Textile  Industry:  Draper  looms, 
56-58;  Great  Britain,  infant 
death  rate,  92-94;  looms  tend- 
ed, 56-57;  Northrup  looms,  57; 
speed  and  complexity,  56-58 

Textile  Law:  Great  Britain,  216- 
218;  Massachusetts,  212-216 

Tiring  Effects  of  Heavy  Labor, 
196-199 

Tobacco  Factories:  ailments  after 
overtime,  88 

Toronto,  Canada:  Asylum,  109; 
Bell  Telephone  controversy,  7, 
48-49;  physicians  on  telephone 
strain,  108-110;  telephone  re- 
port, 108 

Toxin  of  Fatigue,  13,  26,  27,  281 

Trade  Diseases:    special,  112-115 

Trades:    dangerousness,  120 

Trade  Unions:  basis  in  collective 
bargaining,  208-209 ;  physical 
condition  of  members,  100 

Training:  cost,  37;  limits,  37;  na- 
ture, 35-39;  nervous  and  mus- 
cular strength,  37;  overtrain- 
ing, 37;  phj'siological  basis,  36; 
Treves,  Z.,  37;  value,  36 

Treppe,  35,  134-136 

Treves,  Z.  :  injury  of  excessive 
drain  of  energy,  35;  overstrain 
among  working  people,  107-108, 
III 

Turin  School,  19,  33 

Twelve-hour  Day,  4,  126,  256 

Unconsciousness  of  Fatigue,  38 

Unlformity  of  Hours:  need,  184; 
promoted  by  law,  182,  184 

Union  Labor.     See  Labor 

United  States:  administration  of 
labor  laws,  228;  elastic  law, 
223-227;  inclusiveness  of  legis- 
lation, 224;  trend  toward 
shorter  hours,  167-174 


United  States  Bureau  of  Labor: 
inquiry  as  to  eight-hour  day  in 
Salford  Iron  Works,  141;  tele- 
phone hours  of  service,  49 

United  States  Intjustrial  Com- 
mission: on  advantages  of  re- 
duced hours,  169-170;  shoemak- 
ing,  64 

United  States  Supreme  Court: 
Holden  v.  Hardy,  245-246; 
Lochner  case,  246-247;  Ore- 
gon case,  231,  251-252 

Utah:  eight-hour  law  for  men  in 
mines  and  smelters,  245 

Van  Thienen,  T.  H.:    night  Dutch 

work, 268 
Vienna,  260 
Vitality:  national,  115 
VoiT,  24 

Wage-earners:  value  of  study  of 
diseases,  120 

Wages:  effect  of  reduced  hours  on, 
173-174;  loss  by  delays  and 
waiting,  203 

Washington,  D.  C:  International 
Congress  of  Hygiene,  etc.,  26 

Waste:  accumulation  in  the  blood, 
11-14,  18 

Watertown,  Mass.:  Arsenal,  201- 
202 

Weaving:  efficiency  under  scien- 
tific management,  201,  204 

Webb,  S.:  effect  of  rigid  law,  218; 
factor}'  legislation,  123;  textile 
and  non- textile  laws,  222 

Weekly  Rest,  256 

Weichardt,  W.:  toxin  of  fatigue, 
25-26 

White  Le.\d  Industry,  238 

Williams  Case,  247-251 

Wisconsin:  industrial  commission, 
239-240;  limiting  women's 
working  hours,  269-270;  night 
work  for  women,  270 

Wisconsin  Bureau  of  Labor:  ac- 
cident statistics,  75,  76,  77 

Women:  freedom  of  contract,  244- 
245,  248-252;    health  and  citi- 


341 


INDEX 


Women  {Continued) 

zenship,  254-255;  morbidity, 
39-42;  night  work,  224-225,259- 
277,  304;  physical  differences, 
39-40;  scientific  management, 
205;  state's  duty  to  protect 
health,  254-255.  See  also  A'igA^ 
work  for  women 

Women's  Rights   Party  and   fac- 
tory legislation,  254 

WooLRicH  Arsenal,  141,  156 
Worcester,     Mass.  :       employes' 

health,  235 
Work:    hours  of,   laws   regulating, 

291-304;  human  element,  127; 

individuality  in,  285;  pathology 

of,  113-115;   rhythm    79-82 


Working  Capacity:  rise  and  fall, 
33-39 

Working  under  Fatigxte:  effort, 
33-34 

Wright,  C.  D.:  effect  of  the  ten- 
hour  law  in  Massachusetts,  131 

Wundt:  shortening  of  reaction 
time,  69-71 

Wyatt,  E.:  scientific  management 
and  working  women,  205 

Zacher,    Dr.:     German    industrial 

insurance,  101-102 
Zehlendorf  Sanitarium,  105,  107 
Zeiss  Optical  Works:    experiences 

of  shorter  hours,  155-167 


342 


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